


Lizbob Supernatural Watching Notes (season 7)

by lizbobjones



Series: Lizbob Supernatural Watching Notes [7]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Archived From Tumblr, Cross-Posted on Tumblr, Fanwork Research & Reference Guides, Meta, Meta Essay, Non Fiction, archived from elizabethrobertajones blog, watching notes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-05
Updated: 2018-12-05
Packaged: 2019-09-12 00:23:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 23
Words: 98,838
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16862767
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lizbobjones/pseuds/lizbobjones





	1. 7x01

Or: I’m Team Godstiel

* * *

This “Road So Far” montage is much better than the Carry On Wayward Son montage from 6x22, sorry. :P It didn’t even bother trying to explain season 6 and deliberately fucked up the continuity to have like Dean from 6x06 ragging on Cas after footage of his betrayal for example, going for emotional storytelling over plot. A+ burying season 6 for the sake of starting us off on season 7 with a new story tangentially related to the old one. :P

* * *

*squinting distractedly at Sam trying to work out if his hair grew between seasons or if the season 7 mop asserts itself later*

* * *

> CASTIEL:   
> Stop. What’s the point if you don’t mean it? You fear me. Not love, not respect, just fear. 

:( :(

Oh Cas. As his first lines of the season, and the first meaningful lines of anyone this season (Bobby kicks it off by being snarky-terrified and kneeling before him) it says a lot about where Cas is now and what he wanted… Of course Godstiel is kind of twisted around a bit but he’s not entirely not-Cas. After all, “still just Castiel” did all the stuff like breaking Sam’s wall on his own initiative, so his descent was something Cas as himself was always capable of… On the other hand, I think the power high comes with some corruption from the Leviathan. Cas hasn’t  _really_  learned about not killing angels yet, since this is where his trauma comes from in the most part for that, so his motivation last season stated for not getting rid of the purgatory souls yet to give him the power to kill all of Raphael’s supporters can be seen as coming from him, but the whole murder rampage by the end of the episode does clearly seem to be suggested that the Leviathan in him are egging him on and he’s lost control to them so I sort of diagnose the megalomania here as being at least partially their fault from the start, even if Cas having some latent megalomania as a character trait is fine because WOW does he ever learn from this experience and get chances to prove it :P 

We’re getting conflicting messages from Cas - when Dean tried to talk him down at the very end of 6x22 he pulled the family card and Cas basically said lol no we aren’t family, which was very focussed on the betrayal and the lack of help, I think. Although this is a whole summer hiatus later, I think this dialogue isn’t necessary contradictory, just perhaps Cas realising when he sees them awkwardly trying to please him so they don’t get smited that it isn’t the reaction he wanted, and I think it’s disappointment… Cas’s desperation from last season was to win so that he could protect them and keep the apocalypse they all fought against the first time from happening again, and he had deep emotional stakes with them. Now he’s sort of disavowing those feelings and saying they’re NOT family after that fall out, but his feeling of disappointment betrays that - somewhere under all the roiling angry purgatory souls - he had wanted originally to do this FOR them, and to see that they’re just terrified of him gets to him with some wires crossed… he feels like he wants religious devotion to him but what he asks for instead of fear is respect and love - emotions much easier to come by when you DO treat people as friends & family rather than demanding they kneel before you

I think Cas doesn’t know exactly what he wants from them even on a kind of abstract level away from all this; we’re a LONG way from Cas being remotely close to being teased with wanting to be human or choosing Dean and staying with him and so in a way this is like the most overblown demonstration of Cas starting off alien and unapproachable and too high up to ever come down to their level… On the understanding of the intent at this point in season 7 that he was meant to be killed off, perhaps illustrating that this is Cas’s problem to the writers that he was too powerful as an angel ally to have around (the same problem they’re ALWAYS struggling with) and so elevating him to the furthest extreme demonstrates his incompatibility, and then he dies for it… Whereas his return and all subsequent seasons work on bringing him down from that and humanising him and drawing him the other way, playing with having Cas in the narrative as a less powerful and more friendly ally/friend/lover/whatever :P

as the overall thing, though, this season begins and ends with Cas, and somehow without him being in the season for most of the time, this season is one of the most  _about_  Cas of any season at all… Everything important that happens in this season is shockwaves from this event, and Cas’s return contrasts to this with him brought as low as he’s ever taken… 

I dunno, I just really like how the season starts here and ends with Cas disappearing in Purgatory in a self-sacrificing bid to protect Dean from Leviathan and let him escape, and basically deep into the journey to atone for this, and earning that love and respect naturally? Because when Dean catches up with him in Purgatory, that’s when the love is first shown in like, full, crippling force. :P 

(Ouch. This is me trying to justify skipping right there, but it doesn’t wooork I have to go the long way)

* * *

> CASTIEL:   
> Sam, you have nothing to say to me; you stabbed me in the back. 

Omg you can talk, you literally just stabbed Balthazar in the back on the same spot 20 minutes ago

* * *

Cas’s super calm god voice just kills me. 

> CASTIEL:   
> Besides…once you were my favorite pets before you turned and bit me.

Bah, last season Crowley was calling them pets to demean them and Cas was getting angry about it :P 

* * *

Should we count how many times Sam says “I’m fine” this season because he just said it twice in a row while swaying on the spot and bleeding from the nose

* * *

> CASTIEL:   
> The rest of you, our Father left a long time ago, and that was hard. I thought the answer was free will. But I understand now. You need a firm hand. You need a father. And I am your father now. Be obedient, children. Or this will be your fate.

… this is actually horrifying. :( So many dead angels… Hello Cas’s ongoing trauma for the next  _ever_ \- the fact he KEEPS ON suffering for it makes it worse and worse the longer the show goes on

But anyway, as I was saying Cas’s slide last season did include being constantly trapped in situations where he told himself he had no choice and so his OWN PERSONAL attempt to survive via free will blew up in his face - either he felt trapped, or when he made a choice, the choice turned bad… I think we have to look ahead to Cas running around watching the bees and making a ton of passive safe choices for himself as a sort of recovery from this as well? Like, it’s not exactly a holiday for him, but he gets to work through some stuff… 

And Cas trying to insert himself as the new father figure to the angels/world… Lashing out and trying to gain control all at once, trying to make a direct stand against this endless theme of absent fathers… While getting it horrifically wrong

* * *

Poor dented car.

Dean’s back in his t shirts with stuff on that he only wears when he’s not being a hunter… I’m guessing he has a collection but just doesn’t wear them when there’s a chance he’ll get mauled and the shirt gets damaged. :P Like, fair dos to get them dirty fixing the car but he’s not going to bleed onto any of his shirts with cool designs on

Of course this also takes us back to season 6, in the very early episodes when he was still with Lisa and Ben he was wearing t-shirts like this instead of his normal plain t-shrts. And there was the bizarrely prescient mechanic in 6x02 wearing the same jumpsuit Dean wears later, who was upset because his marriage had ended badly (bloody shapeshifter murder aside it had already fallen apart because of supernatural sabotage) … I found that scene almost impossible to look out without hindsight on 7x01, but I can’t seriously believe any of it was intentional :P

Here’s the bloke working at Jimmy’s auto body & repair:

Pfft

* * *

Meanwhile, while Dean and Bobby talk, the names of the guest stars flash up and spoil everything :P

> BOBBY:   
> Exactly. What? Miracles, mass visions, trenchcoat on a tortilla? I don’t know what I’m lookin’ for.

DON’T GO GIVING HIM IDEAS

* * *

> DEAN:   
> If you stick your neck out, Cas steps on it. So you know what I’m gonna do?
> 
> BOBBY:   
> What?
> 
> DEAN:   
> Imma fix this car. Because that’s what I can do. I can work on her ‘til she’s mint. And when Sam wakes up, no matter what shape he’s in, we’ll glue him back together too. We owe him that.

:( Dean with nothing to do but fix the car is so tragic. He’s in this temporary “lost everyone” state, although in the next scene Sam is back upright. The car of course being symbolic of all his trauma of the last few episodes… I like that it’s connected first to helplessness about Cas, and then with Sam, Dean’s more positive about fixing him… 

This meta here:

<http://elizabethrobertajones.tumblr.com/post/140592625353/the-impala-is-not-dean>

has a great theory about the car relating to Dean’s relationships with his family as much as his own inner turmoil. Considering he more or less has Sam for the rest of the season even if Sam is ill until 7x17, but Dean still has to bench the car and is one of his losses along with Cas as well,  the way this one tiny bit of dialogue was structured putting helplessness about Cas as the motivation for fixing the car, and separating out optimism about fixing Sam after, also strongly links Dean and his problems with Baby this season, symbolically, to his loss of Cas… So we really begin the whole “season 7 is weirdly the most Destiel season” thing :P

* * *

Pfft the church with the “God walks among us” sign outside. 

I still wonder if these people have a cult of Cas after being shown the error of their ways and having a nice new stained glass window put in and everything. 

* * *

I do like the remodel of Bobby’s basement as Hell.

Especially with in 6x22 Bobby’s house all done up with dust sheets and candles and cobwebs formed another part of Sam’s psyche. 

I guess burning it down may in some ways be symbolic for Sam in the same way the Impala tends to largely carry Dean’s state of mind?

I mean I know it’s  _Bobby’s_  house but :P

ALSO normally Dean and Cas share symbolism/storylines but THIS season it’s Sam and Cas, Cas treading some of Sam’s old ground but on steroids, and here we go directly from Cas having the Leviathans whispering to him as he clears up the church, to Sam having hell visions in the basement: both are shown in distress at this point, and their problems are going to keep on overlapping or trading back and forth for the rest of the season until they literally trade

* * *

Pfft, Dean turning off the TV when the woman describing Cas says he was sexy.

* * *

He carries on fixing the car briefly wearing the Sam’s Dead plaid from 2x22 which I’m not sure has reappeared since Dean was beautifully mourning Sam back then?

If nothing else this makes me think they had a sash of clothes at Bobby’s that they didn’t drive around with, and Dean had it there since the end of season 2

(Which tragically backs up my theory that Dean’s cowboy outfit died in the fire rather than being in the back of the car all this time)

* * *

> SAM:   
> So, what? Try to talk to him again?
> 
> DEAN:   
> Sam.
> 
> SAM:   
> Dean, all we can do is talk to the guy.

Like I said, Cas is treading some of Sam’s old ground - Cas is in the last part of what will be a pride fall, and Sam was literally linked to the actual demon manifestation of Pride back in 3x01 as part of setting him up for what could have been the Boy King arc pride fall… even without that happening, season 4 and the demon blood arc covered similar emotional ground on what was a smaller scale until the sudden whole raising Lucifer thing. SAM GETS IT. This episode is to Cas as 4x22 is to Sam.

* * *

Meanwhile, Dean is sinking deep into resentment and loss:

> DEAN:   
> Cas is never coming back. He’s lied to us, he used us, he cracked your gourd like it was nothing. No more talk; we have spent enough on him. 

this is… I hate to say it… kinda similar to Dean telling Sam never to mention Lisa and Ben again. Of course, with Cas as an ongoing problem in the world, and killing a lot of people, they can’t have a total embargo on talking about him, but Dean definitely is done with the emotional touchy feely discussions about it. 

* * *

I like Crowley’s shitty caravan. It has bloody sigils in the windows and apparently no one has noticed.

Also: why does he not just hide in Hell? At this point it’s still reasonably safe from the day tripping status it has later. :P

* * *

> CASTIEL:   
> I’m not going to kill you, Crowley. I have plans for you. 

Mistaaake 

he’s gonna steal your guy in just 2 seasons and you’ll be regretting this :P

* * *

> CROWLEY:   
> I take it you intend to keep the lion’s share? So, what you’re saying is hell’s being downsized?
> 
> CASTIEL:   
> I would have done away with it completely, but I need a threat to hold over my enemies, and we need to keep Michael and Lucifer’s cage.

Interesting that we almost didn’t need the whole shut the gates of hell thing, except that Cas kept it because he was not a benevolent God - we saw him healing (heck he apparently fixed all leprosy out of the SPN world) but he’s also dealing out strong punishments, so he’s striking a real balance, which of course judgement is literally represented by scales.

I think therefore in a way he’s also keeping Hell around because it maintains balance - their world has always been dualistic in one way or another, and the Heaven vs Hell aspect of it represents that for most of the show at this point (season 11 and the whole darkness thing finally REALLY upsets that balance while creating a new balance of opposing powers a bit more abstracted from that, finally making Heaven and Hell small players in a bigger game :P) but, at the end of the day, this is mostly strategic for Cas to keep the other 2 archangels safely boxed away in an inaccessible realm

it’s almost fitting that once Carver era started getting more lax about people wandering between previously impenetrable realms, eventually one of them DID get out again…

* * *

I like how Cas says he’s going to work with Crowley again though (this time him as the one in charge) but everything happens so quickly after that I don’t think Crowley ever even sees him again before he dies?? :P Certainly not enough time for the natural order of the universe to be changed much… 

* * *

> BOBBY:   
> She’s looking good.. Considering.
> 
> DEAN:   
> Considering? I should do this professionally.

*everyone who has ever written a mechanic!Dean fic wailing about this line probably*

* * *

I always like when Dean has the realisation that the only solution is Death. This is like the second time already and he’s not even done. TBH Death probably stood in the way of that scythe because he was just fed up with always being asked for petty little favours :P 

You know, like “kill God”

But yeah Dean and Death continues to be one of my favourite character interactions on the show… That first meeting was dramatic enough Dean knows exactly who to call when they start talking about killing God because if anything that happened to them in the last few years is memorable, that would be it when Death said he could reap God. :P

* * *

TBH Dean is so busy channelling everything into the car it’s Crowley who’s having the alcoholic meltdown this season. Have yet to see him without whiskey in his hand…

> CROWLEY:   
> You really believe you can handle that kind of horsepower? 

This line always makes me cackle, because horseman? horsepower? No? just me?

Sam saying a spell that Crowley reckons only Lucifer could have done is just a spell and a spell’s a spell… Part of my ongoing wish for good witch Sam, since they already do a fair amount of magic anyway just with summonings and stuff, why not just get some better training/practice in? 

But also the fact Crowley thinks only Lucifer could handle it, and here’s Sam having re-absorbed the part of him with an uncanny resemblance to Lucifer last episode, with Lucifer quietly haunting his head…

* * *

Cas does the good old Winchester “I fucked up” staring in a bathroom mirror thing. 

he’s never truly lost from them

* * *

Good old breaking and entering to get the really expensive rock… Whenabouts in canon did they find out you could buy this stuff really easily? :P

(This setting is too funny with the husband and wife forced to watch the whole disaster so I wouldn’t trade it)

* * *

> DEAN:   
> Okay. Yeah. Good. Hey, guys. Uh, so this is Dr. and Mrs. Weiss.
> 
> SAM:   
> Hi. Sorry.

* * *

One of my favourite situational jokes from the show tbh 

And Dr Weiss wincing when they smash up his “god thingie” and all his display cases smash

* * *

Also the blink and you miss it placing of a bag of junk food during all the dramatic spell ingredient preparing

* * *

I don’t know if Death missed the memo about Godstiel or if he just thought that Dean would be so obsessive about Sam being broken that he’d skip up worrying about THAT to make weird requests about fixing Sam.

(Okay so that’s the first Dean knew about it. But either way Death is not paying any attention to them more than he has to. :P)

* * *

Dean being rude to Death is the best thing ever. Respectfully.

*terrified reaction shot of the doctor and his wife*

* * *

Oh Cas you aren’t looking too good. :( Dean looks really alarmed to see him, and then demands Death backtrack to explain about the Leviathan, accidentally showing concern twice in a row even if Cas literally tried tried to kill him… Death continues talking to Cas to deliver the exposition we need.

> DEATH:   
> Long before God created Angel and man, he made the first beasts – the Leviathans. 

I know the timeline is utterly fucked on this show but does that mean when it was just God and the Darkness he made these? Since he seemed to make the angels to fight her, or at least they came into existence when she was still around

Considering how fucked up Leviathans are as a creation - like wtf sort of motive would God have for making them in the first place unless these were some SERIOUSLY failed mistakes or what needed to exist to survive in the chaotic primordial Creation - I like the idea that God and the Darkness were still one cosmic entity at the time, and they were trying to create things together, but the monstrous side always won, and so God split away from her, made Purgatory to seal the Leviathan up in, and created the angels, a pure thing completely Other from her darkness to help lock her away. And the Angels and Leviathan are actually siblings in a way… Maybe the Darkness is responsible for making Eve (she’s on the same model as Amara’s, after all, in the way the show has many template characters that roll up season after season) or maybe the Darkness is wholly responsible for leviathan and God wanted a crack at creating things as well, and he just cleared up her first attempts to make room for his own…

Whatever it is, I’m like 90% sure as with me trying season after season to figure out how Eve, the Leviathans and whatever else fit into the show’s mythology, I’m not going to get a solid answer, but probably some new retcon that shakes up ALL the previous stuff :P

* * *

Considering how much Epic Plot Exposition that has been giving to us by Death over the years, I do wonder what Julian Richings even thinks the plot of Supernatural is. :P 

* * *

> DEATH:   
> Stupid little soldier you are.
> 
> CASTIEL:   
> Why? Because I dared open a door that he shut?

Ooh but Cas and Dean with their parallels to being soldiers still exist it’s not like that’s completely gone away :P

also bonus early example of Cas vs doors, I belatedly realise. Since he’s the one who oversaw the Darkness being released (accidentally) … I mean there was discussion at the time of Cas having past form with opening doors and letting stuff in, but I didn’t know Cas literally talked about opening a door, so that made me laugh

* * *

> DEATH:   
> Quite the humanitarian.
> 
> CASTIEL:   
> And how would you know? What are you, really?

Cas with the philosophical questions again? Maybe not but now I’m amused to collect him asking unanswerable world building questions

* * *

I swear Death is rolling his eyes addressing the confused and terrified couple who got home invaded for this when he rolls his eyes about Cas buying his own press

Might also be where Sam or Bobby was standing but I like the other thought better :P

* * *

Every time Dean doesn’t bother with proper formalities for cosmic beings we get these hilarious terrified reaction shots from the others

Honestly the fact Dean doesn’t mind his Ps & Qs with terrifying cosmic beings etc is probably how half of them end up falling in love with him :P

Cas looking at Dean after he yells at Death to just kill Cas already is somehow even more heartbreaking than Cas when he was looking at Dean fully intending to kill him. >.>

* * *

> DEATH: I had a tingle I’d be reaping someone very, very soon. Don’t worry – not you. 

Yeah he was addressing the poor tied up couple the entire time

_amazing_

* * *

This episode is the actual worst for red bringing out the blue in Misha’s eyes

* * *

> DEATH:   
> Shut up, Dean. I’m not here to tie your shoes every time you trip. I warned you about those souls how long ago? 

IF YOU KNEW SO MUCH ABOUT IT YOU’D HAVE MAYBE ACTUALLY HELPED AND TOLD HIM WHERE TO LOOK? You told Dean to be detective!Dean and then he literally got  _no leads for an entire half a season_

I mean not like he’s Death or anything and knows exactly if Crowley is or isn’t dead…

*casually blames Death for everything now he’s dead in current canon so it’s probably safe to do it*

* * *

> DEAN:   
> Well, I’m sorry. All right? I’ve been trying to save this planet, so maybe you should find somebody better to tip off.
> 
> DEATH:   
> Maybe I should spend my effort on a better planet

I am torn between sobbing about Dean’s self-esteem and cackling about Death’s ongoing thing with confirming the existence of aliens every time he shows up

* * *

> DEATH:   
> Try to bind me again, you’ll die before you start. 

I still think that was Dean’s plan in 10x23 and he didn’t actually expect to make it past the summoning :P 

* * *

Oh no, Cas, you’ve got a little… something… there… *offers him a tissue to catch the Leviathan goo coming out his nose*

* * *

Aaand I guess with the car fixed and despair settling in, Dean gets to work on his morning drinking 

NOW it feels like season 7

I noticed there was a terrible old computer on Bobby’s desk but Dean’s put his laptop there instead because I couldn’t remember exactly how this scene happened and I was this close to accusing Dean of watching porn on Bobby’s computer, which is an actual sin

* * *

He’s got his glass ON the laptop and is pouring a new measure of whiskey OVER the laptop DEAN NO that is ALSO a sin

* * *

> SAM:   
> What do you mean, “We don’t”?
> 
> DEAN:   
> I mean, we can’t bring the horse to water, and we can’t make it drink. Why fool ourselves?
> 
> SAM:   
> Dean, look, I know you think that Cas is gone –
> 
> DEAN:   
> It’s 'cause he is.

*despair* *heartbreak* 

and the interplay between Cas and Sam both being in meltdown and how it relates to Dean comes after this because he equates Sam not telling him about the hallucinations as another sign everyone around him is lying and untrustworthy (although we saw on screen Sam backing off from telling Dean because he didn’t want to upset him any more BECAUSE of the Cas thing)

* * *

Oh pfft this never happens with anyone else, I was just sitting here thinking “wow the director really caught their best angles I wonder who - “ 

it’s Phil. It’s always Phil. 

* * *

*procrastinates looking up Sgriccia-natural instead of watching Sam make that prayer both so I am prepared and don’t ask again and because that prayer is awful and devastates me*

He directed Time After Time but also Buckleming’s inglorious return to the show. I’m guessing the ridiculous clothing porn in Time After Time is the unholy combination of the director who seems to really love Dean’s face and the writer who has only been with the show since season 7 and already probably holds the record for most times anyone’s dressed Dean up :P

* * *

The transcript has no scene breaks so it *really* highlights this transition:

> DEAN:   
> Well, I think reaching Cas is, uh… out of the cards.
> 
> SAM:   
> Hey, Castiel. Um… 

* * *

If you need me I am over here feeling extremely emotional about Sam reaching out to Cas. 

You know despite ALL the framing of like literally everything, if we take a massive step back and just look at events, Sam has WAY more cause to be pissed off with Cas, because he’s currently actively suffering because of him and even in the 6x20 confrontation it was Generic Betrayal Angst vs I Brought You Back From Hell Wrong, always with Sam as the considerably more injured party… And yet, Dean hogged all the emotional limelight (for ~some reason~) But I just love so much that Sam like one episode later after Cas smashes his wall is ready to forgive him and to start offering those chances at redemption again, while Dean is still stewing in his broken marriage. (I mean he’s watching anime porn as part of his despair spiral, and that brings in the whole “Cas is gone so watch porn to fill the void” thing that you could use to link more implications to them if you wanted to :P)

* * *

Outdoors night shots always look so fake on this show, honestly it’s part of the charm.

* * *

> DEAN:   
> Yeah, well, you should.
> 
> CASTIEL:   
> If there was time, if I was strong enough, I’d – I’d fix him now. I just wanted to make amends before I die.
> 
> DEAN:   
> Okay.
> 
> CASTIEL:   
> Is it working?
> 
> DEAN:   
> Does it make you feel better?
> 
> CASTIEL:   
> No. You?
> 
> DEAN:   
> Not a bit.

Cas tries to apologise mostly by saying he feels regret and WOULD fix Sam… I feel sorry for him, but it’s clearly not going to work on Dean yet. This whole bit makes me grind my teeth that Cas was supposed to die permanently because (Edlund saving the day again) Reading is Fundamental answers so much of all this conflict perfectly with their approach to the problems that even if it doesn’t all get sorted until the very end of the season, since I watched this season for the first time with no idea what was going to happen I assumed it was all part of the plan, and when I saw how the Cas stuff wrapped up, it totally fooled me into thinking this in the first episode was all just set up to be answered later.

I am *so* glad I didn’t go through the hell that must have been fandom in season 7 for a Cas fan :P 

* * *

Hi unexpected Lucifer.

Oooh no there’s caged halo lights in this room and one was hovering dangerously close to Hallucifer’s head

which is pretty funny that the lights are literally in a cage, considering Lucifer is telling Sam that HE’S still in the Cage.

* * *

Dean wanders off to look for Sam, and leaves Bobby and Cas alone off-screen, and I am very sad because they’re not going to interact again after this scene until 10x17

that is a bloody long time to not see each other :(

I mean I guess Bobby’s ghost and Cas were in the same room once and Cas watched him move on but he was sitting very quietly in the corner so I don’t think they talked :(

Bobby hauls Cas up and props him up by the weird butt sigil thing that opens Purgatory, but since Bobby starts reading, Dean has to be the one to pick Cas up when he flops over again… 

hahaha forced them to interact sucks to be them

* * *

> CASTIEL:   
> I’m sorry, Dean. 

*sobbing* 

Dean now looks sad and concerned so even if he’s going to be pissy about the bigger problems, I think he’s realised that he can’t actually just decide he hates Cas and that’s the end of that they’re done, because dammit when Cas looks all sad at him, he still feels something. :P 

* * *

*waves to the purgatory souls whooshing out of Cas since one of them is Benny*

They never talked about that as far as I recall :P

* * *

Hey, what’s the worst line ever? :D :D :D

> DEAN:   
> Maybe angels don’t need to breathe. 

* * *

Followed by Bobby having to firmly tell Dean that Cas is dead so he’ll accept it, and Dean saying “Damn it” in the smallest saddest voice ever

Yeeeah someone is still in love with the angel despite everything, I think??

* * *

Oh hey look, Cas gets a free pass on being dead because Dean likes him

“That was unpleasant” … I’d say “never change” but I’m not going to do that when I know how long it is until we have regular!Cas back in freakin’ 8x07 :P

* * *

Actually have we considered something REALLY awful (since 11x14 has put me in mind of it) that from the moment Cas ressed until he shoves Bobby and Dean away saying there’s still Leviathan in him, it was just the Leviathan play acting as Cas?

(I think they are WAY too unsubtle for that tbh but it is a terrible thought :P)

Besides, it’s way too important for Cas’s arc that he says that thing about “finding a way to redeem himself” as himself

* * *

*casually breaks the rules and goes to watch the beginning of 7x02 because fuck that, the opening 5 minutes of 7x02 are basically part of this episode as they see Cas off and he’s gone before Misha’s name even shows up in the credits at the start, and there are too many cliffhangers in this chunk of episodes*

* * *

I always wondered if it was Dick talking in this bit or if they were being a bit hivemind-y and their behaviour was sort of erratic because they all wanted to have some fun… As the “head” I would assume Dick got to make most of the decisions here though. The Leviathan’s voice gets more echoey though, implying many of them talking at once

I’d assume Cas starts melting in earnest because without the OTHER purgatory souls to power him up he’s not actually strong enough to contain the Leviathan?

But, ironically, since he was burning up rather than melting (he has had a BAD DAY) the souls which were the only way to hold the Leviathan back were also too hot for him to handle for other reasons…

Basically Cas was going to explode no matter what and I hate this >.>

* * *

*feels incredibly sorry for Misha’s inglorious end on the show to be him covered in goo and fake blood, zombie-shuffling into a lake*

* * *

*feels even worse about Cas doing the same*

* * *

Aw man the way the trenchcoat floats towards them is SO SAD? Like, Ophelia floating down the river levels of sad. Of which there are probably parallels to make? Even though the Leviathan steered themselves in there, if we take them as the metaphor for depression that consumes, then them taking Cas to the lake to die is all sorts of awful. >.>

(I don’t remember a lot about my first impression of season 7 but I do remember thinking that if Cas came back he’d be naked, so quite apart from anything else re: unexpected trenchcoat continuity, the show got that right too :P Actually, considering the whole “naked and covered in bees” thing, Cas is naked twice this season, and I think it’s probably quite symbolic just of the state he was in? It’s more about being defenceless and vulnerable than anything else, jokes about the bees thing aside…)

* * *

*watches Dean fold the trenchcoat and give it a sad squish* I’m not crying, you’re crying.

They eulogise Cas in the most them way possible, Dean openly mourns Cas for a moment, and they head off to deal with the new way the world is fucked. >.>

Welcome to season 7!


	2. 7x02

Or: this episode makes a fairly solid case for season 7 being one giant soap opera

Bobby like “this is a new one” 

honestly I miss him just because of the regular snark we’d get for all the escalating mytharc nonsense :P

* * *

In this episode too Hallucifer has the caged halo light hovering juuust out of reach of his head. ([x](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.homeofthenutty.com%2Fsupernatural%2Fscreencaps%2Fdisplayimage.php%3Falbum%3D135%26pid%3D121036%23top_display_media&t=Y2M5MzY1ZjFlMGY3Zjg2YmUxYzBiYzFkYjcwZWU1ZGQwMGUwZGMwNyxNbkZ2ME9FSw%3D%3D&b=t%3AEoTmUHpiEEiE91JGAXVv3Q&p=https%3A%2F%2Felizabethrobertajones.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F141105396683%2F7x02-rewatch-or-this-episode-makes-a-fairly-solid&m=1))

We also get the first Dean and Hallucifer blurring since Dean walking up to Sam and prodding him in the shoulder is what snaps him out of the strong vision and the camera cuts from Hallucifer and Sam standing one way to Sam’s face to Dean standing in the exact same spot.

except the halo is right over his head ([x](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.homeofthenutty.com%2Fsupernatural%2Fscreencaps%2Fdisplayimage.php%3Falbum%3D135%26pid%3D121055%23top_display_media&t=MGVjMDRiZDI5N2U3NjQ1MTc5MTZiMmQ0MDYxOWVkZjMwNDc0OTIzMixNbkZ2ME9FSw%3D%3D&b=t%3AEoTmUHpiEEiE91JGAXVv3Q&p=https%3A%2F%2Felizabethrobertajones.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F141105396683%2F7x02-rewatch-or-this-episode-makes-a-fairly-solid&m=1))

seems pertinent after Hallucifer mockingly called him “saint Dean”

Still not sure if Sam’s subconscious was just selling the characterisation for max torment here, or if this is already getting deep into Hallucifer telling us stuff about Sam… In this case, his resentment for Dean fixing everything (and probably more the whole him always knowing what’s best for everyone - Sam was expressing how dodgy altering Ben and Lisa’s memories was from experience just a couple of episodes ago based on his own experiences of Dean doing the same to him not that long before, but the story, for the sake of having both Sam and Dean running around doing stuff, always vindicates Dean’s choices… And so going from Hallucifer to Dean under the halo light is sort of showing that vindication from the show? I dunno :P)

* * *

It’s always bothered me how the Leviathan burst outwards in the lake and seem to be whooshing towards them. On my first ever watch I had a whole half a second of anticipation for huge lake monsters rearing up and going for them before the show really committed to sentient black goo, and they dispersed and that was that, Leviathans are regular looking humans in suits :P

* * *

good application of the title card anyway…

… which of course at least until Dick explodes in the same effect at the very end of the season, means the explosion of black goo we’ve had so far in the season is just Cas’s death, making the title card a visceral reminder of how Cas died EVERY SINGLE EPISODE. It’s not just that the Leviathans are there on earth as a result of him: each episode reminds you, even when it’s not about them at all, of this event… Like, Cas’s death is ingrained so deeply on this season it’s actually always struck me as strange to see people talking about it as a season that was bad for Cas, before I knew that this really was supposed to be it - I can’t remember if I watched this with Cas’s return somehow spoiled for me even from outside the fandom, or if I was just really hopeful and couldn’t believe we’d *never* see him again, because I’ve always liked this season, and it’s stuff like this which really makes the entire season about the tragedy of Cas and therefore something I’d eat up. :P

* * *

Sam is swaying on his feet and seeing as he was too busy being choked by Lucifer to see the whole Cas getting overtaken by monsters thing, but when Bobby can’t remember what they’re called, Sam is STILL helpfully like “Leviathan” … he pays attention since he’d have had to remembered that from the conversation with Death :P

* * *

I know I already did notes at the end of 7x01 for the Destiel stuff in this bit but I am just so SAD about this being the end of the epic love story of Dean n Cas, and it started with Cas hoiking Dean out of hell, and ends with Dean hoiking one soggy empty trenchcoat out of the lake like the ultimate failure to save Cas…

* * *

“Rest in peace… if that’s in the cards” still hasn’t been explained where angels and demons go when they die, although I’d suspect now the Empty. I wonder if Cas literally can’t access it and he keeps bouncing off it so has to return to his vessel, like that’s the big secret to his get out of jail free card on resurrections without all of them needing to be acts of God. Be funny if season 11 ended with Dean getting dragged in there by Amara or something and Cas was like “nooo” and tried to jump in after them and just bounced off with a great big trampoline sound.

I mean also tragic

but so so funny

… Don’t listen to my wishlists :P 

* * *

But yeah, Bobby worrying about Cas’s fate. :’) 

* * *

Leviathan possession montage! Hey, obligatory terrifying child. Hey Edgar!

He’s a lawyer on How To Get Away With Murder right now, which makes at least 2 of them because Dick showed up not too long ago… Basically the casting calls that net creepy antagonist lawyers on one show are for primordial terrors on another.

(Last episode of HTGAWM also featured a surprise cameo from Emily Swallow stealing a character’s soul so I guess Amara’s out there and busy at work in their world too)

* * *

We have another blurring of Dean and Hallucifer. It seems like they’re making a fairly obvious point of the things that live in Sam’s mind being Dean some way or another, since the bartender, Robin, in 6x22 blurred with Dean’s voice, and now it’s happening the same way with Hallucifer’s voice in Sam’s head coming into focus as Dean in the real world as he wakes Sam up

* * *

Sam, of course, sleeping on the Sofa of Tragedy, because it’s not long for this world so it needs to make its point that Sam’s in trouble :P 

* * *

Dean and Bobby force Sam into honesty hour, and Dean carries on his hard drinking for season 7 in response to what comes out in Honesty Hour with a very emphatic scene change to skip the summary by just showing us Dean thumping down a bottle. He’s the one pouring the drink for Bobby this time, rather than Bobby pouring for him but we definitely saw quite a few examples of Bobby being the one whose immediate response to drama was to pour a drink…

* * *

Anyway if I was Sam, seeing my loved ones immediately take to hard liquor every time I opened my mouth would be a very good reason to stop telling them everything wrong with me >.>

* * *

> DEAN  
> Okay, fine. But this Malibu dream mansion that he, he, he makes for you to take away is this post-apocalyptic mess? 

*spares a moment to be sad that Dean is going around complaining about the state of the world* I know it’s pretty obvious at this point but may as well collect all the evidence about why he’s hurting so badly and angry and not very well-disposed towards this conversation >.>

* * *

> TV ANNOUNCER (V.O.)  
> Scientists have no explanation for what astronomers can only describe as a surprise eclipse. 

Somehow I feel like that line is Edlund throwing shade at what I can only describe as the most ridiculous deus ex machina (or… Death ex machina) on the show :P

* * *

> TV (V.O.)  
> [Indistinct] [Different channel] Time to announce… [Different channel] We know you’re hungry. Why not indulge yourself at Biggerson’s home-made pie bar? It’s like a salad bar, but with pie. [Different channel] Next week on Dr Sexy MD, Dr Cheyenne Meganopolis makes a shocking return.
> 
>   
> TV (DR MEGANOPOLIS V.O.)  
> I’m sorry, Doctor, I forgot being Head Surgeon means you cut into whatever body you want and take out whatever organ pleases you without any paperwork whatsoever.

The creepy leviathan girl’s smile is amazing… I hope she’s having a long career of smiling disturbingly. (Tiny bit glad because she’s so creepy she didn’t end up being in the whole season :P)

Anyway, here’s some continuity for you! She seems to mastermind the entire thing herself right here and now - I’m not sure she’s the early form of Dick Roman? I can’t remember the continuity on their forms and I think “Dr Sexy” came back later because they couldn’t kill him this episode? Whatever it is, this leviathan proves themselves really useful because A: Biggerson’s mention (and just telling us that the Leviathan’s main motivation is hunger! I love this voice over!) and B: with a total fail on sarcasm/dramatic irony/whatever you’d call that, she learns of the sorts of structures humanity has in place which would allow a clever hungry monster to start collecting things to eat, a small scale version of their eventual much larger plan…

I always like when something tells you early on everything that’s going to happen, because unlike SOME seasons, *coughs and looks back in the rear view mirror* this one’s main plot is ruthlessly simple and to the point and we’ve literally just heard all that matters in one TV voice over and an answering creepy smile

(and PIE BAR - the Dean vs pie stuff starts early here… even before he knows it. Of course next episode has Sam giving him cake instead of pie, and Dean angrily rejecting it, and towards the end of the season Dean has to confront that pie has been taken from him by this plot… Utterly unrelated to how this season is entirely about Cas’s absence and so on, this is Season Dean Does Not Get His Pie.)

* * *

> BOBBY   
> What are you doing?
> 
> DEAN   
> Turning on his GPS, case he decides to fly the cuckoo’s nest.

In my experience, this is more like inviting, 10 minutes later, Sam like “wow my phone has gone down 15% battery in the last hour… Oooh the GPS is turned on for some reason, whoops.”

* * *

Well okay this is one of those examples of Sam Not Okay And Obsessively Cleaning Guns

might be 3 hours and “wow my phone has gone down 70% battery”

* * *

Meanwhile, Bobby is still herding his wayward orphans, and now Sam’s at least settled quietly into an activity, sucks it up and attempts the real challenge:

> BOBBY   
> And you? How are you doing?
> 
> DEAN   
> Seriously Bobby, it ain’t like he’s hexed, you know? I mean, what if it’s the kind of crazy you can’t fix?
> 
> BOBBY   
> Yeah, I’m – I’m worried too, but humor me for a second. How are you?
> 
> DEAN   
> Who cares? Don’t you think our mailbox is a little full right now? I’m fine.
> 
> BOBBY   
> Right. And weren’t you pissed at him when he said the same thing just a couple hours before he spilled his marbles all over the floor?

That’s not even the full struggle Bobby has - in the end he just TELLS Dean why he’s in danger of his own non-supernatural but still perfectly valid mental slide (not that Dean gets much support this season)

* * *

Dean at least responds to this conversation by drinking coffee and saying he’s fine

back in the AU in 6x17 Bobby was grumbling about Dean acting like he was his wife (when he had an actual wife! :P) trying to be all emotionally supportive, and now Dean rolls his eyes at Bobby trying to do the same and asks if they should do couple’s yoga, but then they smile to themselves without letting the other see and this whole Dean and Bobby being emotionally supportive and apparently married theme keeps on going. Of course, when Dean was being supportive to Bobby it was right after he lost Rufus, and there were Cas n Dean parallels between Rufus and Bobby, and now Bobby is offering Dean emotional support, citing losing the best friend he ever had, so this is literally repaying the favour (even if Bobby doesn’t remember the AU)

> BOBBY   
> Course, if at any time you want to decide that’s utter horse crap, well I’ll be where I always am. Right here. 

Uggh but this is so tragic because of course the house is going up in smoke soon, and Bobby’s going to lose that important home base security he has for them: he’s still a friend but this sense of domestic lives the Winchesters have disappears until they’re settling into the Bunker properly, even if they do get reasonably attached to Rufus’s old log cabin. I can’t even remember if Bobby has any significant episodes left before Dick shoots him, but in that episode when he reconvenes with the Winchesters and gets a taste of their much deeper spirals once we’re further into season 7, is to tell Dean to suck it up… With my newly acquired knowledge that Edlund wrote both, it’s clearly not a contradiction (watch season 6 and tell me Edlund doesn’t remember his own episodes with minute clarity :P) but a shift or a slide downwards … I feel like I’ve never paid much attention to Bobby in the first half of the season (I feel like he’s not in it much?? He has an episode somewhere interacting with Jody, which is great, but not significantly with Sam and Dean so far as I can recall? There’s a joke somewhere along the line that they’ve forgotten who he is when Dean’s making an off-screen phonecall with him) but this does seem to me that of course he would be affected by losing his house to the leviathan, as part of his longer arc about going vengeful against Dick setting him up with a vendetta against the leviathan, but also just to consider the knock on effect of Bobby being in a bad ways on Dean, since they are very clearly established here as in one of the most connected states they’ve ever been, even with all their parallel arcs through the years of alcoholism and so on

(Like, for example, the fact they both end up invested in the soap opera Dean was watching while he had his broken leg)

* * *

I mean… Dean is his favourite… :P

* * *

meanwhile, elsewhere in the world and 15 minutes into the episode, we get a break from all the drama to watch a homoerotic locker scene gone wrong when the guys just get eaten, and Jody sparkling at Dr Sexy while he’s still not a leviathan

Shout out to the amazing lady in the bed opposite her :P

> PATIENT 1   
> …crying to the ER nurse, screaming Mother Mary mercy, and when they opened her back up, three sponges and a set of clamps, sewn up inside like she was a living piñata. You can’t trust these people.
> 
> PATIENT 1   
> Charming, isn’t he? Did you know a study showed three quarters of doctors cheat on their exams? He might not know your appendix from your vagina.

I fuckin’ love Edlund

* * *

Okay, so the chain of command seems to be Dick > Edgar > creepy girl/Dr Sexy… Makes sense considering Edgar gets all the way to the end of the season early as the second in command. Even though it was the little girl’s idea to become Dr Sexy

* * *

Also if you hadn’t gathered I really love that there’s this callback to Dr Sexy… Even if it’s very subtle, this is the only other mention aside from a throwaway line mentioning the books the show was based on in 4x18, so it’s a great little continuity nod to revive the existence of the show and assure us it’s still on air even if we never catch Dean watching it any more (I still think Changing Channels may have put him off :P) and also since all the specific premise of Dr Sexy ended up doing was giving us the moment of Dean fangirling over Dr Sexy, I’ve always taken it as a sly reminder of The Gayest Thing Dean Has Done To Date

* * *

Anyway he goes to investigate the locker room deaths

she says making no connection whatsoever between Dean and whatever else I said about the location or the last paragraph or whatever

* * *

> DR GAINES  
> Just breathe deeply. I’m Dr Sexy. Your surgery is when I say it is.
> 
> [kidnaps a patient]
> 
> JODY MILLS  
> Huh. Not weird at all.

I love Jody on painkillers :P

Also: this seems like a “the dangers of watching too much TV” message 

I’m still giggling about how “”Dr Sexy”” laid into Dean for doing unauthorised face transplants or whatever it was he was doing in TV Land. like, oh, it’s fine when YOU do it Dr Sexy I’m sure YOU had a good reason to be doing unauthorised surgery this season on your show

I hope he and Dean’s character made out in an elevator at least once

* * *

Anyway Jody is a total BAMF to be investigating monsters while literally so fresh out of surgery she still has to carry her drip with her

* * *

> HALLUCIFER  
>  Not like we got HBO in the Pit. 

*Lucifer makes current pop culture references before he’s even technically out of the cage in season 11*

and awww no Sam, volunteering to go back to run of the mill flaying and other torture if it means being more certain of where he is :( :(

* * *

*Bobby walks in on Sam yelling at thin air and immediately offers him a beer and takes one himself*

* * *

it’s not just Dean, then, although I notice it was beer and not hard liquor with Sam. I wonder if Sam is still a cheap date when it comes to the harder stuff? Or if this is just drawing a line between Dean’s heavy drinking coping and Sam just having a beer of solidarity.

* * *

> BOBBY  
> Well, either Sheriff Mills is having an ObamaCare-insured opium dream, or something’s eating folks down at Sioux Falls General Hospital. 

Pffftehehee.

One thing I love about this season is how often they use “eating” - I don’t know what it is about the word but it’s just so simple vocabulary applied to nonsense serious situations… And like how the Leviathan talk about eating each other as well like it’s a perfectly logical thing to do… they don’t tend to talk about killing or anything, just eating, and to them it’s perfectly natural because they’re a species driven by hunger? Like they don’t have any enthusiastic interest in murder, per say, or death and destruction. Their end goals all come down to food, and so they have odd side goals like curing cancer, and an interest in structure and organisation all for the purpose of eating…

* * *

Anyway Lucifer comes and borrows Sam, posing as Dean. He’s probably a shade ruder than normal Dean, but hardly so much more than Sam would notice right away considering Dean can have insensitive moments in a panic… If nothing else it’s a good undermining of how Sam sees Dean, to make him just a shade more brash and/or inconsiderate than Sam might have expected but not so much that it’s wildly out of character to Dean’s many personality flaws :P

> DEAN  
> Yeah, he’s working his own case, I gotta move and I need back-up and that means you.
> 
> SAM  
> Wait. You sure about that?
> 
> DEAN  
> I know, you’re bonkers. But, luckily I just need you to keep the engine running and wait by the back door. Just don’t, uh, don’t let Satan change my presets. Let’s go.

And then

> DEAN  
> How you doing, Sam? In the head region. Devil still riding shotgun?
> 
> SAM  
> Not right now, but… yeah.

That’s because the devil is in the driver’s seat and SAM is shotgun

* * *

Oh hey, random continuity on Martin:

> DEAN  
> Okay, yeah. But what are your other options? You remember when Martin took his nose-dive and started shooting at nothing? I mean his sweater unraveled fast.
> 
> SAM  
> I’m not Martin.
> 
> DEAN  
> No, but you are crazy. That don’t wash off. You get that, right? You are never going to be okay, Sam.

“Dean” delivers that just smiling cheerfully and staring straight ahead, and if that wasn’t enough to make you think something was wrong, in the worst car continuity on the show, Dean pulls up outside Bobby’s with no Sam in the car and starts looking for him :P

* * *

<http://elizabethrobertajones.tumblr.com/post/94758453103/can-i-just-say-that>

tbh I don’t really have anything intelligent to say about this section except reminding us of this little detail and how it quietly validates so much of the close reading we do :P

* * *

Well and “Dean” telling Sam that he’s “out of control” which is so blatantly untrue for Sam’s usual method of quiet meltdown he’s employing once more here that even Sam is like ???? and Hallucifer gives up the pretence to get back to tormenting Sam properly

* * *

I was saying in 6x22 that Sam’s hell memories manifested themselves as a Sam that was suicidal and that just let main Sam kill him, handed him the knife even, so this is all continuing on the theme all season of the hell memories bring Sam towards self destruction… At first actively, since Hallucifer is goading him to shoot himself to escape this and prove whether it is all a hallucination or not, and then later passively, as Hallucifer keeps him awake and tries to kill him through exhaustion… I think this season overall has the most emphasis on themes of mental health for all of TFW, including Bobby’s going vengeful a metaphor that gels with the backstory we learn about his father in his death episode for Bobby’s fear of his own violence, while Cas and Sam are directly linked to mental health issues, and Dean has an obvious alcoholism/depression spiral.

And then with the leviathan as an overall parallel/metaphor for depression as well as the obvious criticism of consumerism/capitalism/whatever from their business ventures

* * *

Like, it’s all really grim watching but I do think season 7 is infinitely better plotted and thematically collected than season 6 >.>

* * *

Because they met the leviathans through Cas, he gets a fair few mentions this episode - Dr Sexy recognises Bobby from throwing him around the room while possessing Cas… it doesn’t seem like they downloaded Cas’s memories, which would be a good thing because an entire season of an army of murderous primordial horrors second-hand in love with Dean would be a NIGHTMARE

* * *

Sam borrowed a sketchy van from Bobby’s to drive out to the warehouse place, which fits a long pattern of Sam driving sketchy stolen vans

* * *

I always end up back at 10x22 when thinking about Sam and driving

* * *

Dean spends a disproportionate amount of time using the horrifically sad eyes this season, but I like this moment because it’s like the opposite of the way Hallucifer was portraying Dean caring about Sam’s problems - Dean was angry at the start of the episode that Sam didn’t share with the class, but he’s always been concerned, and Hallucifer was playing off Sam’s feeling of a lack of concern, so Dean stepping up and understanding Sam and relating his own experiences to Sam and unequivocally saying he’s there to Sam puts to bed that anxiety I think? I’d say Sam holds it together for a good long time - enough to get back into the MotW after this anyway :P - mostly because Dean wasn’t at all weird about it when it mattered? 

Along with Bobby offering to be there for Dean, we have a lot about scratching together some degree of a support group for them all but also showing how all of them are going to be broken this season?

then of course, they head back to Bobby’s for this tentative 1 episode (like, 2 days in their time) support group thing to all be torn down and throw them all into the void that is season 7′s extended various breakdowns

* * *

There’s so many books and so much alcohol in the house no wonder it went up easily

* * *

I still think sometimes about all the magical crap in there going up in smoke, like there must have been some seriously weird effects in the flames

* * *

Dean slips between the cars to make what practically amounts to a plea on the level of some of the awful despairing prayers he’s made - there’s a long theme of them using the yard to reach out to higher powers 

> DEAN (on phone)  
> You cannot be in that crater back there. I can’t… If you’re gone, I swear, I am going to strap my Beautiful Mind brother into the car and I’m gonna drive us off the pier. You asked me how I was doing? Well, not good! Now you said you’d be here. Where are you? 

You know the worst bit is that Bobby would get that message since he’s still alive. He never mentions it..?

Anyway that’s as much as we ever see Dean  _really_ break for a long time, but he’s on this fine line with perpetually feeling like he’s losing everything and he’s not even done with losses yet this season by a long shot, so even if it’s not said out loud again, it’s helpful to remember just how much he’s scraping by this season?

(I think the 3rd Edlund episode of the season, with the guy who wanted his demon back and was a hideous parallel to Dean, also mentions how he was suicidal at the time of the loss, and while the alcoholism theme comes up there as well, it’s blatant all season for Dean, I don’t remember this one attaching itself to Dean as obviously? That said I have really never spent a great deal of time reading about season 7 since in general fandom doesn’t spend a great deal of time wallowing on it these days, so who knows what else there is to say about it…)

* * *

I do not remember ever seeing that crane with the car on it before, but the angle looks like it was pretty much where the crane was to do the ridiculous of Dean n Cas staring at each other, the spot where that took place off in the background…

Good moment of Sam and Dean both having the same idea to drop the car on Edgar

Honestly, though, what did Dean DO between calling for the ambulance and it showing up? They were lying right near a car with a hand sticking out from under it. He must have dragged Sam all the way to the side of the road so that no one would come by and see Edgar.

* * *

anyway blah blah clffhanger… have we NOT had a cliffhanger since like 6x19? :P


	3. 7x03

Or: Honestly prove to me that Dean’s betrayal about cake instead of pie did not directly lead to all the conflict from this episode 

* * *

Ooh, yay, it’s Dabbflin writing… I have a pavlovian response to assume Bucklemming when it’s Director Ackles even though I know exactly when they come back. I don’t actually have a problem with this episode aside from that fact it becomes the conflict for mutliple episodes, and I’ve never found it unwatchable but on the other hand you get really weary of how a MotW conflict spilled over into the entire first half of the season and the fandom makes it worse by there still being arguments in the more Sam vs Dean aligned factions about who was right here

I mean obviously there’s more at work underneath all this, it’s just annoying most of the fight is about what should have happened to Amy rather than addressing their underlying issues :P

* * *

Those underlying issues, as I blabbed on about last episode, all being so grim and depressing, that no wonder they decide to vent their feelings by arguing about this issue instead….

* * *

Anyway Director Ackles bravely takes a stance to film up his own nose for the first scenes

* * *

I have no idea how Bobby dealt with the whole his house burns down and two guys are found at the site by emergency crews knocked out/with a broken leg but he’s in a suit to come collect Dean so he was clearly pulling something to find/get them and he’s not doing it as Bobby

Maybe he was hoping that his house burning down would let him get officially declared dead, which is always handy for a hunter

I say about the season where Robbie Thompson’s a short way away from wandering in and fucking shit up with the whole “Winchesters have been presumed dead by the authorities since season 3″ thing

* * *

Anyway Dean has no reason to look so pretty all bloody and worried and wearing a hospital gown

I guess Bobby’s reassuring pat on the cheek was like 2 parts sarcastic “i believe in u champ” about getting out the door, one part “got your terrifying phone message but hey we’re all alive so let’s never talk about that again” :P

* * *

I swear Sam has stared practically every other episode since he got his soul back unconscious…

* * *

Well Sam’s technically more upright than Dean at the cabin, and I guess Dean is just hogging that sofa for the three week recovery period.

He’s watching his soap operas and looking UTTERLY distraught at the death of Ricardo, and I suppose this exchange between Bobby and Dean might be as much as we get about Dean’s scary phonecall unless I am SERIOUSLY blanking an important Dean and Bobby moment?

> DEAN   
>  _Suicidio._
> 
> BOBBY   
>  _Adiós, ese._

I’ve seen discussion of this around, especially focussing on the reaction to the dead character as Dean mourning for Cas - who did after all have a death that he was at least mostly responsible for all the dominoes leading to it even if it wasn’t by his own hand like traditional suicide - suicide by leviathan possession? And Dean DOES need to mourn healthily and he’s had these three weeks as a time off where we can assume he’s sort of coming to terms with everything… Admittedly like with Cas in 11x06, the whole benched and watching TV thing is more linked to stagnation and mental decay… i mean if you want to talk about cabin fever, they are literally IN a cabin…

But to set all that stuff aside, I’m pretty fascinated by Bobby and Dean over, well, this whole arc since say 6x19 where Bobby and Sam first made it clear they thought there was something special between Dean n Cas - with Sam then diverted into his own problems, by the start of season 7 Bobby’s caring for two very broken Winchesters and being supportive in the ways he can of Sam’s broken mental state, and Dean’s broken heart… The previous episode Bobby extends an “I’ll be here if you need to talk” to Dean for when he can admit he’s in trouble, Dean admits he’s in trouble at the end of the episode in a message to Bobby’s private cellphone, and we have to assume since Bobby survived he heard it. I don’t know if they would have talked but what we DO see is Dean and Bobby both invested in the soap opera, with Sam sitting off to the side, and Dean parked right in front of the TV… Sam is probably absorbing it without thinking, but Dean is heavily invested and Bobby knows the characters and can have his own concern for them, so he and Dean must have watched a good chunk of the show together while holed up in the cabin

And so the line where Dean is sadly pointing out Ricardo’s suicide, and Bobby is making a sympathetic response, is a stand in for the conversation they never had about Dean confessing just how close he was to killing himself at the end of 7x02. Of course circumstances change and Bobby’s temporarily fine and back in their lives and they’re in a stable safe house and Sam is upright and presumably with no dramatic meltdown since last episode or we’d have seen that on screen… Dean’s back in that bubble of having the security and somewhat stable family around him that he was feeling so gutted without for that moment when he thought Bobby was dead

so them being them I don’t think they WOULD have talked, but that Bobby would have offered his support to Dean in other ways, such as being there to watch soap operas with him, and this exchange is shorthand for explaining the issue left hanging from last episode re: Dean’s extremely fragile mental health

* * *

We then get an unnecessary plot recap in case anyone skipped the first two episodes, with Dean Sam and Bobby reminding each other what Leviathan are and that Cas was possessed by them, meaning no one’s forgotten his name yet

* * *

I’m glad some time has passed because Sam’s Ridiculous Season 7 Sideburns are really filling in

* * *

Dean starts stressing about Sam once he’s left, and here’s my real fascination with the whole Dean and Bobby Lousy Mental Support network thing because about as often as they’re supportive, they’re actively destructive encouraging each other to drink, and when tough topics come up, way too prone to saying stuff like this:

> BOBBY   
> It ain’t like he’s keeping secrets. What you see is what you get. What’s so nuts about calling an upswing?
> 
> DEAN   
> Because that’s not how it works, Bobby, ever! All right? Especially not with Sam. The other shoe is gonna drop. It’s just a matter of when.
> 
> BOBBY   
> Okay. How ‘bout we worry about today’s problems? And today, we need intel. I’m going. You sit there and stew. I’ll check in. Look… you sitting here wringing your hands ain’t gonna do nothing. Maybe he’ll surprise you.

It’s like barely supportive and bare minimum reassuring, and telling Dean to stew is actively reminding him he’s trapped - when Bobby leaves Dean is stuck thinking about his situation and scratching at his cast looking gloomy…

Dean calls Sam a time bomb, and of course later in the episode he’s not even sure Sam hasn’t cracked and run off again like he did last episode when Lucifer took the wheel.

I think this terrible mindset from Dean contributes as much to his trouble accepting Sam’s judgement this episode as the Cas stuff affects his own decision to kill Amy? He’s totally screwed up on both fronts, and dealing with his own depression that’s spiralling in these bad situations for him, while adamantly NOT addressing it. 

* * *

Oh gosh, Sam is in an off-brand Gas n Sip… Have we seen any of them before? I have not been looking out but I feel like 9x06 may be the first time we see one properly branded? I feel like the 8x08 opening was at one but not with the regular branding we see 

Like with Biggerson’s, the fake company is quietly expanding and becoming more and more corporate in the background, until Biggerson’s is such a big chain in season 8 (managing to avoid whatever economic difficulties followed the end of the Leviathans - 8x08 also featured someone who was ruined by it :P) it’s got like McDonald’s level presence for the sake of Cas’s gambit…

* * *

Following on with continuity nods, I think the “Mistress Magda” the Leviathan working at the credit card company is querying some guy’s spending habits about is the same name as Chuck’s, um, friend on the phone at some point… Considering this guy’s bank statement is all liquor and fast food I’ve often wondered if it was an alias :P Probably not, but hey.

* * *

BETRAYAL. That cake is probably really tasty. But Dean has to keep up the image :P

We’re treated to a panning shot of Dean fast asleep on the sofa and the table behind him covered in beer bottles and empty painkiller pots

There’s more beer bottles and cans on the table with Sam but it also looks like that old bucket for fried chicken has been on the table for a full day so some of that might be Bobby’s as well :P Since Dean is holding court from his sofa/throne the beer bottles behind it are logically all his.

… this episode has so much stuff in it we’ve only just got to Sam thinking seriously about what’s sort of the Monster of the Week.

* * *

Tiny Sam!

Somewhat strange to know he’s a giant adult now and played college aged Sam in season 11 because I feel old. Heck I watched his first episode on the show when it was still new-ish :P

This dialogue establishes “Uncle Bobby” in their past once again, and contrasts him as a benign presence if not great at judging what Sam can and can’t read, and John as someone Sam’s actively dismayed to be put on the phone with. For the whole Bobby-John comparison.

* * *

adult Sam goes sneakily sneaking and reveals that Dean has tried the cake and mostly just eaten the icing off the top of it.

* * *

We get a bonus “I’m fine” written down on Sam’s note that he leaves

* * *

Dean wakes up to the TV that he left on playing a documentary about sedentary wildebeest lounging “lazy and self-content” … I’m not sure that’s entirely a good description of Dean right now but on the other hand if he’s getting used to sleeping on a sofa 24/7 for three weeks it’s easy to see how he could think he’s getting lazy and complacent even while having a very justified reason to stay put

* * *

> DEAN   
> How you doing? Uh, was there a, uh, big guy in here yesterday?
> 
> CLERK   
> That’s specific.

I’m not even sure what that’s implying from the clerk’s POV but I’m laughing anyway

* * *

Sam orders the same coffee in the flashback as he does in Out With The Old while fighting off tiredness from his Hallucifer breakdown… Never been quite sure of what introducing Sam drinking the “triple red eye” coffee so early on in his life is meant to be about, except for establishing maybe a life long issue of Sam vs sleep - taking it from way beyond this near cause of death for him, and building it into his psyche as an issue that’s maybe blown up in mid-late season 7 but not exclusive to it? I remember waaaay back in this rewatch, like, Bloody Mary or Phantom Traveller way back, Sam wasn’t sleeping and I am pretty sure I made a comment about this exact thing with the thought future me (hi that’s me right now) would talk about it - that Sam has a long history of sleep disturbance and sleeplessness which was linked to his mytharc issues (and comparing it to Dean’s sleeplessness which was presented as mild in comparison in the start of the show but still alarmingly implying he was only getting his “four hours” which is not healthy :P) … this bears out with Dean continuing to be the one who is psychologically traumatised without the help of any visions - be they Sam’s season 1 psychic stuff or Sam’s season 7 Lucifer stuff - and Sam is tormented by the mytharc.

In a way this season is where it all lets Sam go, so dragging him through some of his earliest problems on the show relating to the mytharc is a good way to bookend it, as this all traces back through the entire show as one story for Sam. And giving us Sam staying up for “eight years” (lol) reading about the Kitsunes in the flashback and consuming a DANGEROUS amount of caffeine for a young teenager shows sleep related stress that he’s had all his life, of prioritising the job over sleep or his health… Although with constant phonecalls from Dean or John checking in on him after they’ve ditched him in the library as their research monkey while they go out hunting, shows the pressure from within the family.

Which THEN afterwards is also mirrored in the fact that this is the season we meet Kevin, whose arc was always mirroring young!Sam.

* * *

Oh! Actually, while we’re talking continuity etc, in… whichever episode is the one with Jeffrey(?) and his demon, Sam is left alone in a library there, where Hallucifer is tormenting him… There’s a post about the library scene I’ve seen circulating and I have a version of in my drafts to reblog but now I think about it might not be that version because there were a few branches of it, speculating about how Sam oversees a couple making out between the shelves, and the post is pointing out their similarities to him & Jess and wondering if maybe they met in the library at college… Of course here in this episode we also have young!Sam meeting Amy in the library and even having a cute eyes meet between the shelves moment… So again a lot of layers linking up Sam and love interests and libraries across the season and then back into his history.

* * *

I always love how they cast tiny!Sam to be tiny and good at punching guys larger than him

Like I know now he’s our gangly moose but it’s one of the best things about young!Sam episodes that even away from Dean he’s blatantly either smol or much younger than the people around him, emphasising Sam’s sort of position in the story as the younger, little brother?

* * *

Did Sam and Amy just… leave… that drunk driver that seemed to be her next victim to do his thing? *rewinds*

Omg a little girl and a dog went running past and the guy actually got in his car

I am severely worried but now also see where the “Sam hit a dog” karma came from

* * *

you know, in the same way Cas threatening the Gas n Sip employee in 8x22 is answered in karma with 9x06

oh hey that also answered my question about earlier branding of the Gas n Sip chain :P

* * *

> YOUNG AMY opens the refrigerator, which contains jars holding brains. She moves a jar and takes out a can of soda. 

hehehehe 

Okay the reveal already came that she was the monster but that was a pretty hilarious shot anyway

> YOUNG SAM   
> No, not really. It’s a cool song. My dad doesn’t listen to anything recorded after 1979, so…
> 
> YOUNG AMY   
> Does that mean you can’t?
> 
> YOUNG SAM   
> I’m kind of stuck in the car a lot. My dad has to travel. For work.

And there’s the whole metaphor about John’s whole frozen in time revenge quest thing where he’s never over Mary, and that rubbing off on them.. (and later continued by them: driver picks the music etc) And a bonus fact that Sam picks Dean’s birth year as the moment of stagnation….

Amy bonds with him over them being freaks, having a more evolved POV on it from understanding herself as a monster in society even better than Sam has come up with trying to understand himself as hunter on the edges of society… Temporarily affirming, but I suppose in the long run not helping Sam’s fears that he feels a much closer affinity to monsters than people… And the fact that they use the word “freak” which was said so much about him…

* * *

Bonus Sam getting knocked out moment 

oh my god his head >.>

* * *

*more up the nose shots of Dean*

* * *

The coroner must be really nervous of this whole pituitary gland serial killer since two separate FBI agents have come in following up on that…

* * *

Haha, Bobby doesn’t even really remember the case despite the fact he had been responsible for sending dense Japanese books to Sam and confusing the hell out of him.

I like the implication that him helping them on stuff was common enough he doesn’t really remember every instance though… I think he gets more and more retconned into their childhood with every season up to this point, but it’s building up to his death and THAT emotional pounding we’ll take, so… 

*grimaces*

* * *

Sam is getting really creepy with just popping up silently in Amy’s room holding a knife

* * *

*generic Romeo and Juliet angst between Sam and Amy as kids*

* * *

Meanwhile Dean resolves problems by punching Sam in the face, which is extremely healthy considering the last time he saw Sam knocked unconscious, Sam started seizing

But anyway shhh he’s as erratic/more than Sam just from a different direction. His break in the last episode was because he thought Bobby was dead, so worrying about something terrible happening to Sam this episode so soon after the whole shooting at nothing in a warehouse incident 

While Dean yells at Sam there’s a mural with goats behind him, which makes me think again how this whole Amy thing is a scapegoat story. He’s been dragged to the worst extreme of how he views supernatural thingies now, from average brain eating monsters to angels you kind of were in love with but then turned out to make terrible career choices behind your back… ([x](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.homeofthenutty.com%2Fsupernatural%2Fscreencaps%2Fdisplayimage.php%3Falbum%3D136%26pid%3D123581%23top_display_media&t=NmUzZmY2ODg0NWMzNDBkOGFkNTNhNDNiNmQwOWYwNDFmMmJmYmYwMSxiRkRZT1Y0Rw%3D%3D&b=t%3AEoTmUHpiEEiE91JGAXVv3Q&p=https%3A%2F%2Felizabethrobertajones.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F141173911903%2F7x03-rewatch-or-honestly-prove-to-me-that-deans&m=1))

(Sam has the bison neon sign behind him through the window and I can’t remember what that symbolises right now >.>)

(<http://justanotheridijiton.tumblr.com/post/125664296499/bison-buds-bar-4x15-5x03-8x21-9x09> I can’t figure it out… A “curse your sudden yet inevitable betrayal” theme?)

* * *

yes that was a Firefly reference and yes I know who Amy is :P

* * *

Anyway if Amy is a scapegoat for Cas, it’s funny that it transplants the angst from Dean losing a love interest via grim betrayal to him grimly betraying Sam by killing one of his old love interests… 

* * *

(Season 7 onwards is where I just stop giving a fuck about pretending there’s a reading where Dean n Cas are not love interests :P)

* * *

> SAM   
> She killed her own mom, Dean, to save me.
> 
> DEAN   
> I hear you, Sam. I do. But look at her now. She’s dropping bodies, man… Which means we got to drop her, no matter how many merit badges she racked up when she was a kid. I’m sorry, but it’s that simple.
> 
> SAM   
> Nothing in our lives is simple.

Sam would know all about killing family members who you feel like disowning… he shot their grandfather last season :P 

(I’m still dubious on 6x16 as good characterisation, but [@kayanem](https://tmblr.co/mqDd4r4TyqDdraQ4Q827nog) and [@firstdrafted](https://tmblr.co/mzZSVnnC3hl9WjutVM4Krmg) are having a great back and forth exploring this very theme in relation to it… 

<http://elizabethrobertajones.tumblr.com/post/141147858583/kayanem-firstdrafted-kayanem-spn-hellatus> 

so I think there are definite links between these episodes thematically anyway.)

Sam is seeing that much more complex theory of what makes a monster and who are they even allowed to kill that requires lengthy meta to unpack, while Dean has regressed to the black and white thinking that even if a monster has done something good it’s inherently a monster and will probably kill again, and even if it doesn’t, I suppose needs to be killed just to punish it for being a monster?

* * *

Amy offers Sam runs away with her, and suggests they go be freaks together, and then Dean immediately calls Amy a freak without knowing that on the other side of the flashback. (I like how part of the flashbacks were Sam coming clean and we can assume that what we were seeing was what he was telling Dean, but then he keeps on flashbacking after he’s said his bit and remembering MORE for the emotional side of the story and as always he holds that kind of stuff much closer to his chest, making it harder to understand him. Amy being reluctant at first to tell him that she had a kid shows the same pattern of behaviour.

* * *

> SAM   
> It’s okay. Say it. I’ve spent a lot of my life trying to be normal, but come on. I’m not normal. Look at all the crap I’ve done, look at me now. I’m a grade-A freak. But I’m managing it. And so is Amy. 

Motives aside, which is mostly how I’ve been looking at why Dean killed Amy, this draws the most direct parallel between her and Sam as dangerous monsters, and so going FORWARDS from that tells Sam that Dean thinks he should be killed for his own good or something, which is obviously not what Dean thinks, but carries these implications of Dean’s lack of trust in Sam (again, something last episode that Hallucifer was really digging into) and gives us a proxy for that to play out without Dean actually hurting Sam…

* * *

Anyway we see another Biggersons on screen sort of just because

* * *

Dean gives the excuse to maroon Sam miles away and then drive off as “going to the candy store” while shaking his bottle of painkillers, so thanks for the helpful reminder that Dean is taking strong painkillers through this entire episode - and he also lets Sam drive them out there, which (I seem to remember this coming up somewhere else a while back) is giving Sam an illusion of being in control and flattering him with the driver’s seat while Dean is fully intending to drive off and sort out what he thinks is Sam’s mess with the Amy situation

* * *

> DEAN   
> I know. I know. But people… They are who they are. No matter how hard you try, you are what you are. You will kill again.
> 
> AMY   
> I won’t. I swear.
> 
> DEAN   
> Trust me, I’m an expert. Maybe in a year, maybe ten. But eventually, the other shoe will drop. It always does.

“the other shoe” thing is blatantly about Sam since that was a phrase Bobby and Dean were saying back and forth when worrying about him, but the rest of it is horrifically about Cas as it fits way more to the concept of betrayal and the fight from Dean’s POV 

Like, “we can fix this” “it’s not broken” directly relating to trying to bring someone back…

And, of course, Sam hasn’t killed anyone. :P

* * *

Still feel kind of cheated that the Inigo Montoya conflict from season 10 was some random guy and not this kid, although I suppose for whatever reason they thought Cole was a good idea was also about a human guy with this story, rather than just following up a loose end for the same conflict.

(I mean I cackled with laughter through 100% of Cole’s screentime so it wasn’t a BAD investment I SUPPOSE but this would have been a more resonant story I think… Season 11 is about the past catching up to them so hey ho I’ll keep on waiting and not like there isn’t a season 12 to fit this into either)

Most of my tag for this episode that’s already on my blog is comparing this kid to Dean not sparing the Styne kid in 10x22 (Dabb to Dabb again, as was 10x02 where we got more Cole backstory), and to look at it from this episode’s perspective rather than season 10 looking back this way, since 10x22 was showing us immediately before the more emotionally significant part where Dean beat up/nearly killed Cas, just how much of his core humanity had been lost. HERE Dean is in a terrible way, largely unstated/alluded to (wildebeest, Ricardo and jokes about candy for his painkillers making up the bulk of exploring his psyche this episode), and yet he still can’t bring himself to kill the kid despite the same umbrella argument for not killing Amy broadly applying to him too. The kid hasn’t killed anyone whereas Amy has, so despite both having a promise never to kill again this episode, Dean basically acts to punish Amy for being a monster and leaves a standing promise that he’d kill the kid if he acted like a monster too/would have maybe killed him if he had already killed someone

* * *

But anyway then then a leviathan is on screen to remind us who the REAL monsters are this season I guess?

This is Everything Is Better With Cheese leviathan 

and I have some amused thoughts about the leviathans appreciating human culture and creation and innovation but - as with the conversation with Dick and Charlie - not really being able to replicate it themselves. I always feel like little things like that are sort of fundamentally undermining their long term plans - if they enjoy giant buckets of melted nacho cheese so much, subjugating all humans and turning them into bleary food zombies is not the best way to capitalise on the people who created so much of what they’ve come to enjoy in the world. :P Like, literally, enjoying eating a dude better with gross processed cheese is undermining their own cause.. Considering the only way to kill a leviathan without the magic god weapon is for another leviathan to eat them and even more damningly for them to eat themselves, I feel like their hunger is actually pretty self-destructive…

Thoughts for another time maybe when there’s more examples to collect :P


	4. 7x04

Or: *watches judgementally*

* * *

I like an episode that starts immediately with a car chase as the first shot

* * *

the recap was almost all Sam has Lucifer visions and the recap of 7x03′s Amy stuff - that looming fight gets to overwhelm the much bigger issues (and takes us all the way to the midseason), and with Sam’s more dramatic problems than “just” Dean’s trauma, we get to the bit of season I like to call “Lizzy is grumpy about Casnesia and hastily engineered conflict so they’re not wallowing in season 6′s angst for the entire year despite the fact they are actually totally wallowing in season 6′s angst all year”

Hey my tag is “season 7 appreciation blog” for the fact I find it for the most part perfectly watchable and the fact the show has a metatextual redemption arc of its own halfway through the season, not because I 100% approve and admire everything in it :P

* * *

Also season 7 appreciation for Sam’s HAIR here we go we’ve arrived for real now :P

* * *

Dean tries being a dork about the ghost having a licence to kill and Sam rolls his eyes - they’re pretending to be back to normal, but we literally started their interactions for this episode with a guilt reminder about Amy from Sam thanking Dean for NOT murdering her

* * *

Then he finds the guy’s sobriety chip and makes a joke about how terrible being sober is, and all this:

> SAM   
> Congrats on your sobriety.
> 
> SAM tosses the token back to DEAN.
> 
> DEAN   
> I gave up AA for Lent.
> 
> DEAN   
> Always with the details. AA gives me the jeebs.
> 
> SAM   
> Wow. Shocker.

oh Dean :( Not even the start of his season 7 alcoholism references but definitely one of the more painful 

right now he’s sort of in a state where the alcoholism is validated so this exchange makes sense to show Dean as not ready to confront his issues at all while he still needs an active coping mechanism for ongoing issues (see: Cas) and Bobby is right there with him - Bobby hands him a drink every time something terrible happens and he’s as likely to hand one back. The more I think on this the more I feel like they really did have a theme of the season of letting Bobby/his influence go because it was unhealthy - although something they built up much more already just in the first couple of episodes/end of season 6, at this point I think it is justifiable to have that on the table as a theme even if I don’t like that they killed Bobby off to upset a status quo that wasn’t really hurting anyone (well I mean I’m literally saying it is, but that’s good because it was already providing its own subtle conflict without needing to kill him)… of course instead we get Dean inheriting Bobby’s flask and that becoming a symbol of their shared alcoholism, followed by a moving on moment at the end of the season… 

So yeah as set up for this arc I am still grudgingly allowing season 7 to be pretty well written somehow :P

* * *

Ooh this is where the image of Dean going into a gay flower shop is from! (It’s got a little rainbow flag on the door… I’ve seen fanfic attached to gifsets of it so much because florist!AU :P) There are flowers in the background of the street scene when they roll up into town

I guess they’re associated with death here as they were flowers for the grave of the girl he hit with his car (*remembering Sam accidentally allowing a drunk driver to go about his business after a girl wandered past in 7x03, and that Charlie’s backstory was apparently all worked out when she was new even if they took many episodes to explore all the points Robbie came up with* Season 7 theme? Dean also used the excuse of losing control while driving to explain what happened to Lisa and Ben, and I think the theme is connected to Cas & Godstiel though I don’t know how directly or if I’m just remembering meta I’ve read) 

* * *

Wait Sam and Dean go to the graveyard to look at the little girl’s grave in the dead of night despite not planning to do anything shifty with it? Like digging it up? 

Maybe they’re just allergic to going to graves in daylight

* * *

> DEAN   
> Kind of makes you wonder if the guy wasn’t drunk when he ran her over.
> 
> DEAN looks at the beer bottle he’s drinking from. SAM watches him.

:(

Of course this ALSO retroactively is subtly suggesting that Dean killing Amy was Dean affected one way or another with his substance abuse of the season

* * *

the hotel they’re in has dark wallpaper with flowers on it again - off the top of my head, I know that’s from Faith and Death Takes a Holiday, although it might not be the same wallpaper - it looks a bit more gold and stylised while those were actually white roses… Either way I think it’s their own hotel room Dean ends up in with the last confrontation with Jo?

* * *

Sam sounds way too cheerful about guys getting ripped to shreds in mystery animal attacks.

There is a meta I either have not reblogged or reblogged so long ago I didn’t bother tagging the episodes to my endless regret, about how each of the victims represents Dean - the drunk for one as I’ve already gone over, but the dog attacks is a little mirror for him going to Hell, especially as the dog was invisible to everyone but the guy it was after. The last victim I can’t remember why he was a murderer but that is another aspect of Dean, especially while they’re pushing Amy’s death as the conflict of the season, but of course with the Mark of Cain arc this episode feels like it should have been in early season 9 instead. 

* * *

> DEAN   
>  I mean, I’m no one to judge, but it sounds to me like that guy had it coming. 

… Dean all you do is make judgement calls for other people. Sometimes you’re right, sometimes you’re wrong (a lot of the time the story lets you be right even when you’re not :P) but this is one of your personality traits that always ends up with you in a leadership role.

* * *

This scene also ends highlighting something that was already getting (literal) whispers earlier: Sam working to distract himself from Hallucifer bugging him. He’s throwing himself into hunting right now and getting back to normal jobs - another line they had earlier - as a distraction and a sense of normality. Sam KNOWS how to do this

And I think the focus is probably more meant to be on Sam and his slowly unravelling sweater over the season, but Dean is in an interesting place here too because he expressed quiet reluctance and was intentionally broadcasting lack of enthusiasm already, but right now all he wants to do is sleep… Thinking about him getting compared to the lazy and content wildebeest last episode, he probably is A: just kinda out of shape/fatigued anyway after 3 weeks on a sofa and B: really doesn’t seem that interested in hunting right now?

All through this rewatch I’ve been seeing them generally swinging in opposite directions with their desire to actually do the job. Last season Dean was largely pulled back into hunting in a way where because the door slammed shut on going back to Lisa within like 3-4 episodes of him officially hitting the road, we got very little exploration of if he would or wouldn’t want to keep hunting, as he was back in that grim “this is the life and what we do” mindset he gets in when he sees no alternative to not doing it - the Sam problem pulled him along for a while and then the main plot caught up so he never got to catch a break. Meanwhile Sam was being queried a few times, subtly, about retirement, and likewise never got a chance to really answer before plot stuff happened even harder to him. 

Now they probably know they have no choice about dealing with the Leviathan, but Dean is showing extreme MotW fatigue and they haven’t even started, again in contrast to the fact Sam is enthusiastic and engaged again, at least as far as doing it shuts out the voice in his head. I don’t think they’ve worked a monster of the week since Frontierland, when Dean was *most* excited about a hunt (and even that was for the benefit of the main plot - these “small” stories you have to go even earlier in season 6) and his reluctance here can probably easily be put down to his depression and misery left over from season 6

* * *

That the story is trying to bury in the Amy stuff and tbh 

like

how do we not know that if not Cas, LISA wouldn’t have been next up on the stand as a witness here? Dean feels like he failed a whole lot of people…

… I do find it interesting that season 6′s conflict gets SO buried though. Lisa is theoretically another thing that could be plaguing Dean except there are not even mirrors or parallels that really bring her back up - she’s well and truly written off and wilfully forgotten from this point on, by Dean and the show. It still hurts, but Cas is by and far the largest source of pain for Dean according to the narrative, and the one that gets revisited this season, as well as a few random fleeting lines along the way such as “having a hard time trusting anyone since Cas”

* * *

Still not sure about that “if I ate apples” being them forgetting Dean x pie or meant to illustrate the many fucked up confusing layers of Dean where he says something to imply he doesn’t eat fresh fruit but is on the record a pie’s no. 1 fan

OR he’s been sworn off apples since Scarecrow

OOOOR he’s aware of the whole Fresh Fruit of Doom thing which I can’t believe is actual symbolism on this show but there you go this orchard is where Osiris is judging everyone’s deaths from, and Dean saying he doesn’t eat fresh fruit is secretly good preservation instincts

* * *

Oooh the other guy who got judged held up a liquor store… More people dying as a consequence of a connection to alcohol? this is 30 year old regrets from this guy, so this also speaks of deep, ancient trauma… as the 3rd example of a random person who’s not Dean before they figure it out I suppose it’s less obvious and more something to probe into…

(That said, going to look for the meta about this episode made me find some stuff from Glass disowning this episode as one of his least favourite he’d written so…)

* * *

NO ONE likes season 7 :P

* * *

Dean runs out of time for the guy but Sam is still willing to hear him out since he’s got way more time for people who others (read: Dean) thinks are crazy

* * *

Why did Sam and Dean go all the way out to the street for their argument? Couldn’t they have had it in the hotel corridor? :P

> DEAN   
> And… when did our black-and-white case turn to mud? I’m just saying I’m having a hard time not rooting for the ghosts on this one.
> 
> SAM   
> No, you said it yourself – it’s not on us to judge.
> 
> DEAN   
> Yeah, except that that’s complete crap. Everybody judges all day long. Look, I’m just supposed to ignore what that guy did?
> 
> SAM   
> We’ve shot people, Dean – more than two.

Yeah Sam you shot your own grandfather

(q: when will Lizzy let that go? a: … eventually… never :P

I mean I don’t blame him, Samuel was being a dick, but…)

Dean anyway fesses up to it being crap that he doesn’t judge people

I feel like they don’t do each other much good by hiding random emotional things because this makes Dean look sketchy when it turns out he was lying, but last episode Sam was concealing the bulk of his side of the Amy thing from Dean…

> DEAN   
> I’m just saying, you know, one simple friggin’ day on the job – is that too much to ask? 
> 
> […]
> 
> DEAN   
> I’m gonna check the bar.
> 
> SAM   
> To work or drink?
> 
> DEAN   
> I haven’t decided.

And there’s a bonus Dean getting fed up of the job AND alcoholism mixed together

* * *

He heads to the bar, with another great big El Sol there… And starts making his own neon signs to the bartender he’s going to bother her with his own problems :P

> BARTENDER   
> Love life or job? Two quick doubles, it’s something. I’m Mia, by the way.
> 
> DEAN   
> Well, Mia, that is a complex question. I’m Dean, by the way.

Apparently that’s enough to make my heart pick up like same as Dean being told he’s pining… I’ve already been over all his trauma so much, but of course I’m accusing this line of alluding to Cas. Maybe Lisa, just because he does try to pick Mia up and has his freak out about it in a mo when he leaves the bar, and Dean would be much more likely to be thinking about her and how that was all a disaster after theoretically picking another woman up. However, romance or not, Cas is one of the things fucking him up regardless, and of course I’d argue that comes under a blurring of love life and job :P

he ducks behind the safest option - 

> DEAN   
> Work thing. Since you asked. 

(Sam-related issues filed safely under work, which is a whole thing on its own that family and job are blurred so much - family business and all - but anyway) this is the freshest round of drama and the one which is least likely to make him look like SUCH a hot mess mourning his various lost loves of the past season since he is flirting with Mia - and starts indirectly alluding to the Amy problem, which is enough fresh guilt we can assume it trips Osiris’s radar big time. On the other hand, just the fact that Jo is brought up out of nowhere does mean that the stuff Dean is on trial for and the things he may have talked about here are not the sole reasons he’d have been picked on… Rather Osiris senses the whole package that is Dean’s self-esteem guilt complex mess…

* * *

> MIA   
> Well, Dean, luckily I’m like a captive shrink with unlimited alcohol. So, shoot. 

*sigh*

* * *

> BOBBY (on phone)   
>  He gets ahold of you, he’s judge, jury, and executioner. Lore says that he can see directly into the human heart. He weighs the guilt. If he finds more than a feather’s worth – boom, you’re done.

(too subtle to be a Hot Fuzz reference but I love how they also call Osiris Judge Judy in this episode :P)

heart symbolism for Dean considering it ends up with his on the line - this starting the theme early, but in a way actually traces all the way up to 11x13, which had the theme of empty/missing hearts and deepest desires read in the target’s heart, then manifesting as something suitably psychologically appropriate for the mytharc :P In this case Dean is read and Jo is turned up - I think a broad theme of this season is loss (for some reason now I’m really harping on the fact Charlie’s backstory all existed on her arrival as that is too) but Jo represents other losses that Dean may never have had a proper time to mourn - getting Ellen back and then Jo allows each another moment  _not_  covered in blood to say a more emotionally connected goodbye OR the show to say goodbye to them? 

If anything the knowledge they briefly had present day interaction with Ellen as recently as a few weeks ago (given the fairly short timeline between the end of season 6 and here) puts the Harvelles back on their radar and in a season with time for grief and loss rather than the desperate race of the apocalypse, maybe it’s appropriate to see Jo again here?

I dunno… I mean there’s so much going on with Dean where do you start??

Which is probably what this is:

> SAM (on phone)   
> Yeah. We’ve got to find him before he goes underground again.
> 
> BOBBY (on phone)   
> No, you idjit. It means you two got to get the hell out of Dodge. This guy hones in on people who feel guilty. Who does that sound like to you?

Of course since the obvious answer is excluded now, if we have to drag out this Amy thing as the obvious answer but they don’t know it, then that leaves Bobby and Sam once more doing the thing where they’re assuming stuff about Dean… here they both agree Dean totally would get fucked up by this god, except what is it that they think he has to feel guilty about? Is it personality type in general, deaths like Jo’s which they all would feel tangentially responsible for just on principle… or is this the big unspoken thing of the season, Dean’s raw wound about Cas that after a few weeks to stew on it, Dean can turn around and start blaming himself for the loss?

* * *

Honestly the fact that Osiris gets right into trying to make Jo say she had a crush on Dean is hilariously tragic when you pretend like it would have been Cas on the witness list and imagine that parallel :P 

(Also Cas being all pissy about being asked pointless shipping questions on the stand lol

is there an AU of this written??)

(probably not, no one likes season 7)

* * *

Anyway aaaah recapping the really scary ghost episode

* * *

I do wonder about Osiris’s power - if these are real ghosts or illusions.

Probably real ghosts where he can get them (maybe not so much the car and the dog…)

Jo defies his plan by being like “lol yeah I just had daddy issues” which in this particular argument - which probably haunted discussion of her character back in the day? - does make her a more complex character and less dependant entirely on Dean for her emotional arcs, which Osiris doesn’t want to hear, but tbh maybe to the really bitter old fandom that might have hated her as a romantic rival, probably does count as the show trying for a PR redemption for her? :P

* * *

to go with the endless rebooting, this season’s callback to 1x01 comes with Sam being put on the stand and asked about his normal life prompting flashbacks to the Pilot, him and Jess, and her death, as well as the conflict with Dean from that episode briefly shown on screen… All of it was fighting about Sam’s right to a normal life/not telling Jess and lead to SAM feeling guilty and terrible about her all of forever

I’d guess Osiris is reading Sam as much as Dean and even if Sam says at the end of this episode he feels well-adjusted, Osiris is bringing out one of the things Sam has felt worst about, and then just finding a way to blame it on Dean - absolving Sam of the guilt by saying it was Dean’s fault?

Even though later seasons (Brady esp.) proved that it was NEITHER of their faults and Jess was going to die anyway, and it was like, the first seal for the apocalypse in their OWN story… Anyway, always fun to juggle the blame around on this

* * *

they’re literally filling time with a highlight reel of all the saddest moments of the show

bleh

* * *

heh nothing like desperately having to save Dean to make Sam well-adjusted about their lives

* * *

this seems like an oxymoron but there you go

* * *

> OSIRIS   
> This is solely about how Dean feels, way down deep. 

#about me

* * *

Sam tries to implant more of this fuck the man style feel good positivity on Dean

this approach to self-help is hilarious

I’d hope it would stick but naaah

* * *

Besides after all Sam’s work Dean still has things to work through that he hasn’t told Sam

~draaama~

* * *

I do wonder if Dean had fessed up now and un-guilted himself, the ghosts would have been called off

* * *

Their hotel from the angles it’s filmed in here is green, aggressively so, and green often = toxic brother stuff, which, Dean going down for not trusting Sam and killing Amy is played as their worst relations for like years…

* * *

> BOBBY (on phone)   
> Long temporary. I say we slap that band-aid on and leave finding a cure to some hunter in a space suit. 

I’m going to miss him :’)

* * *

Dean quite weightily hands over the keys to the Impala so Sam can go save him

~symbolism~

He’s drinking and gutted about his looming encounter with Jo

Sam’s all scary determination

* * *

They use some of Dean’s saddest angles, PLUS his saddest line:

> DEAN   
> You and Sam. I just – you know, hunters are never kids. I never was. I didn’t even stop to think about it. 

* * *

> JO   
> Shut up. You carry all kinds of crap you don’t have to, Dean. It kinda gets clearer when you’re dead.
> 
> DEAN   
> Well, in that case, you should be able to see that I am 90%… crap. I get rid of that, what then?
> 
> JO   
> You really want to die not knowing? Dean.

(here’s his other saddest line) 

of course considering how suicidal Dean feels this season he’s pretty much embracing death by guilt manifestation here, and not fighting back against Jo, mostly just waiting for the inevitable. She actually tries to talk him out of his terrible mindset like that would do any good when she’s compelled to blow him up no matter what… 

it’s a good question though. We know there’s more to Dean than this but he can’t see it… She wants him to survive and find out what it is

A lot of people talk about season 8 as Dean’s happier self-exploratory season, so I like to think he did start to find himself after all this crap was past

* * *

I did like that Osiris dies with a sort of Mummy effect because I watched The Mummy a billion times as a kid

* * *

The next morning by the river for the Important Bro Conversation, Sam’s hair is so fluffy

so

fluffy

…

I’m 4 episodes into the season I’m so sorry there is much more of this to come from me

(I like his season 7 hair better than season 8 just because it was pretty wild here :P)

* * *

> SAM   
> That whole final witness thing.
> 
> DEAN   
> No idea. Honestly, that could be just about anybody dead we know.

Did Sam actually try to make him open up about Cas?

Naaah

* * *

Sam credits going to Hell as his reason to feel he’s paid his dues… Of course for Dean going to Hell ended up just piling on the worst stuff Dean felt he ever did with the whole torturing people thing. His surprise at Sam crediting Hell is obvious… 

It’s interesting to compare Sam here with Dean post-Purgatory when he’s in that mindset about it being pure… I don’t think it makes him feel BETTER or less guilty, but it had a cathartic effect on him that he did not get from his other trip to an afterlife - it changed and simplified his purpose for a while, and so even if this conversation about guilt can’t directly apply, the sense of coming out changed can.

* * *

There’s all these yellow flowers behind them as they talk… I’m assuming they grow there but then they did pick the spot. Of course, the yellow flowers are ominous of demon deals on this show, and carry a suggestion of hell… Which is the topic on the table

* * *

to my delight there is actually somewhere for Dean to chuck his empty can before they drive off. Yay no littering… But I think they were drinking beer before they got in the car??  

TBH these idiots are still answering the phone while driving in season 11 so I am just going to assume we do not learn driving practices from the no-seatbelts stare-at-Cas-instead-of-the-road Winchesters 

Does the Impala even HAVE seatbelts


	5. 7x05

[Originally posted by sleeptheclockaround](https://tmblr.co/Z_7i1x1G2I6MQ)

I used to think this episode had a weird anticlimactic and terrible ending  _before_  I knew who had just returned from a 7 year ban on writing episodes :P

* * *

Like, so, Chuck specifically complains about the truck episode and Bugs, so what do the writers of the truck episode do? Come back and inflict bugs on Dean

those who do not learn from history yadda yadda

* * *

There’s a real realtors are evil theme on this show 

* * *

I know the answer is “witchcraft” but really, how did the woman not just slide out from under the whatever heater thing that was frying her because there was a ton of space to do so

* * *

One good thing: Buckleming levels of subtlety meaning that Dean is dreaming having terrible nightmares about all his trauma, so we get to see a recap of Cas going into the water from Dean’s alcohol fulled nightmare POV

* * *

I mean they just GO for it when they have something they want to write

* * *

Dean is also wearing his Sam’s Dead plaid which has transferred to Cas is Dead plaid this season after a six season long break where I don’t remember him wearing it and I mean 2x22 is pretty traumatic I think I’d remember it :P

* * *

I am still nursing old wounds about “Special Guest Star: James Marsters/Charisma Carpenter” and that sort of being the best thing about the episode while actually still being disappointingly underwhelming

* * *

I guess the highlight of this episode is the gag reel of “Sam’s” ridiculous stretching

* * *

rolling off of last episode, the last conversation between Sam and Dean did not exactly seem to be setting them up for this conversation that they have here? The running thing is pretty funny but trying to tackle Dean’s mental state is Sam just being like “btw out of the blue, I’m going to aggressively challenge you to say you’re not fine” and Dean is like “I don’t want to say that so I’m going to accuse you of some hippy character development shit that has literally only manifested in the last 20 seconds of the show before now, and sulk and drink” 

* * *

paraphrasing helps :P

* * *

Dean knows how hair dryers at salons work, pass it on

* * *

> SAM (on phone):  
> [laughs] I didn’t realize you were such a spa expert.
> 
> [re: Dean knowing even MORE random crap about how to treat yo self]
> 
> DEAN pauses next to a bench with an advertisement for Wendy Goodson Real Estate. The plants in planters on either side of the bench are dead.
> 
> DEAN (on phone):  
> Shut up. I observe with my eyes.

I like that because he is talking about observing with his eyes (okay not the phrasing) the spa stuff, but he’s also putting together the whole dead plant thing etc 

I suppose this episode does include a fair amount of detective!Dean which is always something I enjoy, but at what cost

Dean nopes out of the conversation and goes into a liquor store because subtlety

* * *

Buckleming really like their violent on screen deaths - they always seem to get in twice as many per MotW than other writers, even if it means killing people off after the plot has been worked out :P

Lots of running around for Sam and Dean 

… Dean seems to be investigating this one alone while Sam is off somewhere else, and it’s a little worrying he has the car at this point if he’s making daytime stops at the liquor store

* * *

pfft and then he’s drinking out of a flask around this part of the season even though that’s later the thing with Bobby and everything - no wonder I get confused about when this episode is. I think the exact same conversation happens in their OTHER episode this season where Dean is conspicuously drinking from (Bobby’s this time) flask…

I am beginning to think someone briefed them that Dean was supposed to be on an alcoholism spiral around about now

* * *

musical interlude for the Leviathan who’s tracking them just kinda driving and enjoying his music with the window cracked and zooming through the scenery for a long time

bizarre, but I guess showing Leviathans listening to the radio and chilling as they drive goes with my point, however confused I am about this example existing in the first place, about them enjoying life on earth specifically more for the stuff humans create 

According to Superwiki this leviathan has a name and everything

> _CHET’S CAR – DAY_
> 
> MUSIC: See the Funny Little Clown by Bobby Goldsboro
> 
> ♪ No one knows he’s crying ♪
> 
> ♪ no one knows he’s dying on the inside ♪
> 
> ♪ ‘cause he’s laughing on the outside ♪
> 
> ♪ mm, no one knows ♪

I don’t even know

Clowns + season 7 yay

does that song reflect the Leviathan experience? Is it dropping the music in to tell us some more about the main arcs?

* * *

Did this guy say his assistant was called Jenny Klein? 

she actually is

… Also in the same conversation Donald Trump is name dropped… I know this is older than all this literally Hitler stuff from the American election that I’m watching in horror from across the Atlantic, but still, yikes. In hindsight, this witch is even more evil 

… I mean not that it matters because season 7 also goes on to confirm sneakily that Trump himself is a Leviathan 

……..

Considering all the Leviathan were rounded up and sent packing between season 7 & 8, in the SPN universe Trump is dead and murdered by demons, and also there is a Leviathan probably still wearing Trump’s face wandering around in Purgatory

* * *

*gets the thousand yard stare look*

* * *

James Marsters is getting the Winchester snark treatment

I do like when they team up to tease people

* * *

Didn’t Jenny Klein die in 8x22 as part of Crowley’s mass murder of past saved lives despite the fact he was getting them from books that only went up to season 3?

I mean I’ve always suspected he always watches them to see what they’re up to anyway 

* * *

> JENNY:  
> There were tiny beating hearts in my cupcakes. There were hearts in my cupcakes, hearts in my cupcakes! That’s never happened before! Hearts in my cupcakes! 

I kind of can’t help liking her

* * *

Which is good because the next scene introduces Charisma Carpenter’s Tragic Lesbian Best Friend who is unrequitedly in love with her and gets murdered later

*grinds teeth and focuses on the painting of Jerry Wanek that’s an easter egg in this scene*

* * *

Oh good he’s blaming the breakdown of their marriage on the corruption of the lesbian friend

* * *

I do like watching JM and CC interact

*nostalgia*

I’m also not rewatching Buffy ever in my life in case it’s much worse than I remember because I curiously started season 1 and totally was, so I’m not ruining it any more than that. :P 

* * *

I’m watching on the TV not my laptop so I can’t tell you exactly how many minutes into their return but I’d say ~30 and we have a dead lesbian

*yawns exhaustedly*

* * *

Oh hey the next episode after this is Robbie’s arrival on the scene

I love the mood whiplash when you go Bucklemming > Thompson

I’m annoyingly not tired at 1am maybe I’ll start that one just to clear the palate :P

* * *

There’s like basically nothing to say about the whole confrontation with the witches. Maybe someone else has analysed them as a parallel to other relationships? I mean they’re a broken marriage with a cheating accusation to go with the season 6 version of the Dean/Cas/Crowley love triangle

*yawns again*

* * *

Anyway then there’s a leviathan in the motel room

they get handed it on a platter 

or I suppose to go

this is the season with evil Leviathan junk food after all

* * *

Sam tries to initiate a conversation while surrounded entirely by sinister red light

he also parallels their relationship to the terrible witches

*headache*

* * *

Well Sam snapped because he thought it was obvious Dean was still keeping something from him, which aside from the drinking there wasn’t much of a hint this episode, so it’s probably still based off the judgement episode… I mean Dean has already been drinking heavily just on principle since the Cas thing and that can just be linked to his general bad spiral this season

I know Sam is good at reading him but the actual storytelling hasn’t given us many reasons for Sam to be suspicious?

* * *

Oh well the episode is over time to not watch any more Buckleming for a few more days :P 


	6. 7x06

Or: Robbie as a brand new writer appears in hindsight to have really taken his welcome episode to heart with the whole “hi welcome to the show” “what is the core conflict?” “Dick”

* * *

The recap was better than the entire last episode, mostly because it barely alluded to the last episode existing, and whoever  edited it did a really good job catching that Dean was in the exact same place on screen denying he’d done anything shifty as he had been when he did the shifty thing, so blurred them together really nicely and I’m always a sucker for cool effects like that :P

* * *

Literally the first thing that happens is Leviathan!Dean gets into a conversation with the bankteller about her cute vintage dress

do you ever realise love at first hindsight? I didn’t give a fuck who the writers were at the time of first watching but I always adored that exchange, and now I know it’s some of the first dialogue by Robbie on the show :P

* * *

Dean has such a sweet smile for a monster

* * *

Pfft somehow I managed to overlook that this episode was called “slash fiction” until the title came up on screen

This episode is so ridiculously dark - you go from dark-funny Leviathan bank slaughter (with no explanation yet :P) to Bobby trying out all his different ways to possibly kill a Leviathan with the one chained up in the basement

you know, the one described later as a “sex torture dungeon” 

I don’t remember it getting much better from here. I mean isn’t this the ditching the Impala episode?

* * *

I belatedly realise that if Robbie wrote that, tbh 11x04 is probably just an apology to the car more than anything

* * *

Oh my gosh this is the episode we meet Dick Roman? 

You know what, forget everything else, the title of the episode is literally just referring to the fact this is a season with a lot of Dick

* * *

Credits aren’t even done appearing on screen and their chained up Leviathan is mentioning Cas and making Dean do the affronted-sad expression that he’s dared to mention him

> CHET:  
> From your trench-coated friend, obviously. When we were all nestled in at Camp Cas, kind of got the full download. That’s just how we do. 

I think Dean might be a little worried what else the Leviathan know :P  They don’t have a whole lot of face time with the Leviathans for the obvious reason of them being really murdery and scary so there isn’t a whole lot of taunting despite the fact they’d have got all the Destiel gossip from the source

I like that if they learned everything they needed to know about the Winchesters from Cas, the reason the Leviathans are so determined to make them the no 1 priority to kill despite 

> CHET:  
> ‘Cause I’m not scared of you. You can’t stop me. You can’t stop any of us. We can’t be killed, you stupid little chewtoys. 

^ that being the prevailing attitude towards human “meat-sicles” (omg Robbie pls don’t start with the dick jokes early) it’s probably because they know everything they do about the Winchesters through Cas’s eyes

Which means NOT underestimating the denim-wrapped nightmares, because Cas knows better than anyone in the universe what a powerful force their story-breaking, destiny-altering influence is… I was saying in season 6 that the interest of the huge players in the Winchesters - especially Death or Eve who were not part of the Cas side of things in the same way - was probably related to this, their reputation about ending Apocalypses going ahead of them… They ARE dangerous and resourceful and lucky enough to have managed to survive 3 Leviathan encounters and have one chained up in their sex torture dungeon… Sheer plot convenience luck. 

And so even though they’re just humans and the Leviathan shouldn’t even care, they’re more than wary enough to deal with them BEFORE they become a problem, thanks to Cas’s affection for the Winchesters for this exact reason.

* * *

> SAM:  
> But I don’t understand how.
> 
> BOBBY:  
> I don’t know. Maybe one of 'em touched you at the hospital.
> 
> CHET (V-O from downstairs):  
> It was the hair!

*giggling* He’s so helpful! 

Also this better not have been trying to tell Sam to get a haircut 

* * *

([x](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.homeofthenutty.com%2Fsupernatural%2Fscreencaps%2Fdisplayimage.php%3Falbum%3D139%26pid%3D126943%23top_display_media&t=MTBjZjY0Y2M5M2YwZWY1ZTQ2YzY2ODhlODk1ZjllOGNiMTM4ZTFkMCxJem1tenRGNw%3D%3D&b=t%3AEoTmUHpiEEiE91JGAXVv3Q&p=https%3A%2F%2Felizabethrobertajones.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F141368134076%2F7x06-rewatch-or-robbie-as-a-brand-new-writer&m=1)) I’m laughing because of the x marks the spot from the antennae over Dean’s crotch

this episode is just… dicks

leading to the reveal about

Dick

* * *

I am now having the confused problem that I can’t remember which scene changes are Winchesters and which are Leviathan

* * *

> SPECIAL AGENT VALENTE:  
> We gotta go. Winchesters spotted at a Gas n’ Sip. It’s about a thousand miles from here. That’s fast. Must have flown.
> 
> SPECIAL AGENT MORRIS:  
> That or Batmobile.

They have one of those :P

Also! Gas n Sip reference! The one we saw them at was emphatically not branded like the later Gas n Sips but I like that the name is starting to become a part of the show’s culture?

* * *

Can’t believe they just break into Frank’s house. This is how you get shot. Have they learned nothing about polite society?

* * *

> DEAN:  
> Uh, Bobby Singer sent us.
> 
> FRANK growls, gets to his feet and cocks his weapon.
> 
> DEAN:  
> Or not. Who?

_Smooth._

* * *

> FRANK:  
> Guy saves your life  _one_  time, and, what, you owe him the rest of yours?
> 
> DEAN:  
> That’s usually how it works, yeah.

I dunno if he’s just making jokes with the guy with the machine gun pointed at them, or if that’s a general reflection on Dean’s world view, but YIKES. I suppose they can’t really mean all the randos they save fall under this but I suppose Frank demonstrates that hunters in general do collect useful people who have life debts to them for whatever reason. When it come to Dean personally though, the sense of people owing him their life or him owing his life to them is even grimmer. I mean Dean’s sold his soul for Sam - I know this line is probably pretty silly - but the idea of Dean sort of feeling Sam owes him his life for that… I mean they both have a terrible sense of need and entitlement to the other to bring them back when they die and so on… And of course we’re crawling towards “you should have looked for me in Purgatory” and I’ve been searching since season 6 for motivations for that fight/various related behaviours.

Never mind getting to Cas and how if he saved Dean from Hell, would that mean Dean owes him the rest of his life?

Again, silly line, but if nothing else, it explores the sense of obligation or helplessness for losing people who you owed… 

(Bobby to Rufus, too, since that’s going to come up in like 4 episodes)

* * *

Robbie is a product of his time aka a new Gamble Era writer, so has been given the briefing to write smart!Dean as a matter of course… 

which means having Frank call him stupid to his face :P Heh. I just like that Robbie has no fear??? He respects and writes Dean so well over the years that he’s casually pulling off insulting his intelligence in his first episode and not meaning it? And you can tell it’s completely situational and not ACTUALLY trying to say anything about Dean’s smarts

* * *

*always jumps when Frank smashes up their laptop*

* * *

I forgot that Bobby basically comes up with “if it bleeds you can kill it” when dealing with the Leviathan in a really charged dramatic/terrifying scene

this is the level of fear that line sits on top of

* * *

I still wonder why he didn’t try chopping its head off first on a matter of principle

* * *

“Little tip from a pro: THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A STRING OF ROBBERY-MURDERS BY YOUR EVIL TWINS”

I do wonder what shit Frank has seen :P

* * *

“At least have the common sense to ditch your car”

*Dean’s world comes crashing down for the nth time this year*

* * *

Sam glances very slowly at him from the corner of his eye to make sure Dean isn’t crying

* * *

like, Dean’s expression is basically “look me in the eye and tell me you aren’t working with Crowley” levels of pain

* * *

Jody!!

I really like her hair this season - it’s getting shorter but not so short we get to the divide between Jody’s sensible pixie cut because cop, and Kim Rhodes’ rather punkier style :P 

Everyone is having a good hair season

* * *

Anyway Jody shows up and bullies Bobby into letting her be nice to him and is the one to point out his house burned down and he’s probably not got many reasons to be happy right now, extending that “I’m here if you need to talk” thing she does at other times… 

* * *

Still wonder how the leviathan crawled his head all the way back onto his shoulders

* * *

I have a gifset of Dean vs the car mirror toy pony ready to reblog but this is a shout out to the squeaking noises it makes since those aren’t recreated in gif format

thinking of sounds vs actions, Sam reading the map until his growing realisation of Dean mouthing along to “I’m so outta love, so lost without you” and triple checking this is not another hallucination

which is specifically the lines we really focus on Dean singing

now… This is something I have seen meta’d and commented on one billion times, because it is the most Destiel freakin’ thing in the entire of season 7 pretty much, but mostly just in its season 7 context, so let’s take a big step back and remember this is Robbie Thompson’s first episode, aka the asshole who got me convinced on Destiel storytelling by telling me to look for subtext and then whacking The Sun Aint Gonna Shine Any More over Cas in 9x18

never mind that Robbie wrote the musical episode, and that almost all his plot episodes seem to end with a song with extremely relevant lyrics plastered over them

then rewind back to Dean seeing Sam giving him the ??? look and faltering in his singalong, and remember that the jerk responsible for this episode knows exactly what he’s doing, and musical storytelling is apparently his favourite toy

* * *

anyway yeah remember what I was saying about Buckleming unsubtly just showing us that Dean was still tormented by what happened to Cas?

Here’s the sneaky clever Robbie follow up with bonus Destiel dripping everywhere

* * *

To go with how this season is having another crack at dredging up their early episodes and specifically the Pilot so soon after we had random extended flashbacks to Sam and Jess while Dean was being judged, of course we have the fact the Leviathan are using the first few episode’s locations in a way only the Winchesters (or devotees of the Winchester Gospels) could put together

(And Robbie pointing out to us that he actually watched the show, which I’d say the writers don’t need to do even if it should be a prerequisite, but by season 11 I’m pretty sure this is Robbie like “I have *watched* the show and I need to tell you that I *love* it. Fight me.”)

Of course the whole take me back to the start thing is a constant lowkey theme in the show trying to drag us back to soft resets to do over the story, season 6 most blatantly in 6x01, but all over the place. This is very much part of a pattern of bringing up the very first episodes of the show

* * *

> DEAN:  
> Perfect. Connor’s Diner. Best burgers in St. Louis. Oh, I deserve something good in my life right now. 

What a good time skip scene transition taking us right to Dean getting to eat –

oh

* * *

query, actually, now I said “eat”… Obviously this season is weird about food, but because of that, do we actually see Dean (and Sam but he often isn’t included in this) eat anything on screen? I know we’ve seen them DRINK, but I think Dean didn’t manage to eat their fast food take away in 7x04 … He eats the plot relevant Turducken monstrosity of betrayal, and the perfect burger is being eaten by a monstrous version of Dean busy betraying him by getting him very thoroughly banned from life from this place, if there were even any survivors to keep making the burgers at all

(and then towards the end of the season Dean is stressing about food asking what he’s even supposed to eat)

* * *

Anyway shhh Leviathan!Dean and Sam grumpily psychoanalysing their chosen forms

in some of the best dialogue on the show tbh

> LEVIATHAN!DEAN:  
> You know, he has one of these…   
> …every day. And in his heart, he thinks they’re almost as good as sex. This…  
> …is disgusting.
> 
> LEVIATHAN!SAM:  
> Dead plants with creamy goo. It’s like eating self-righteousness. I mean, you tell me which is worse.

Starting with re-affirming the salad/burger binary worryingly established in such episodes as the ionic “Swap Meat” (uuh… ~themes~?) we get Dean’s relationship with food blurred with sex (thanks for backing up the whole pie vs cake thing early Robbie) and it calls to mind not just thoughts about how Dean has a much more stable relationship with junk food than with any romantic partners (ahahaha hello Burger Date  _go away I am not ready to think about you again in my natural life_ ) but also notable incidents such as the angels trying to control him in the beautiful room with an offering of his favourite burger. A man’s heart is through his stomach…

Meanwhile, Sam and his salads are linked to his own possible personality flaws, but the salad thing was much more a thing (*stares 1000 miles at Swap Meat*) when Sam was in recovery from demon blood and had a whole healthy thing going there, trying to purge and clean up his system blah blah related themes recently dragged up with Sam complaining about always feeling like a freak in 7x03. Sam feeling good about eating well (or running for fitness rather than because monsters are chasing him, thank you 7x05) doesn’t have to be bad self-righteousness, or the dark side of pride, but Sam looking after himself and feeling good about that, and of course keeping a measure of control in one tiny thing in his life - important in a season when he too is spiralling

> LEVIATHAN!DEAN:  
> I mean, honestly, I just… You know what? I can’t stand the guy. Talk about a hero complex. And he doesn’t have relationships. No, he has applications for sainthood. Oh, and he thinks he’s funny. He thinks he’s a damn comedian.

oooh dear

again the main points of this are stuff so much talked over or used as examples of Dean characterisation - hey, it’s not often you get tell instead of show on this :P - that I feel most people would already have a pretty good idea of the kinds of points made about this, especially relating to Cas and the fact that was the biggest pedestal toppling moment in Dean’s life blah blah this sort of thing is lurking right under the surface all season 

I feel like the hero complex thing and the thinks he’s funny thing are sort of bookending it to make a 2 obvious things and 1 thing which is a real deep analysis to make you think, and of course that “applications for sainthood” thing does lend itself to a lot of Dean’s relationships and explains a lot of problems he has relating to people and then being disappointed/angry… Since I’m now vaguely looking ahead to season 8, tracking stuff that might have lead up to the characterisation in the fight at the start, I think this is a good place to “start” with Dean’s sense of betrayal Sam didn’t look for him and that lack of understanding, if you combine the hero complex together with this to make it hard for him to understand why someone he’d love as much as Sam wouldn’t do what he would have done?

> LEVIATHAN!SAM:  
> Who has two thumbs and full-blown bats in the belfry?  
> I’m serious. It’s nothing but Satan-vision on the inside. I mean, how he’s walking around in a jacket with detachable arms is beyond me. You know, I had a brother with this many issues once.
> 
> LEVIATHAN!DEAN:  
> Yeah?
> 
> LEVIATHAN!SAM:  
> Know what I did?
> 
> LEVIATHAN!DEAN:  
> Hmm?
> 
> LEVIATHAN!SAM:  
> I ate him.
> 
> LEVIATHAN!DEAN:  
> Of course you did.

I think this is our first indication of the leviathans eating each other. It also shows that even - especially - while they were all crammed in Cas, they are not actually a hive mind organism which has been the implication until this point. The writers toe the line with the necessarily lazy “cut off the head” solution, but the Leviathans have enough individuality to go crazy or random leviathans can decide to eat each other without it being an order from on high - and they have family structures with whatever that entails… In this case a sibling murder parallel which is as casually delivered as this - the appropriate response to Sam’s issues is murder???

I was saying in 7x03 that Dean killing Amy after she was paralleled so strongly to Sam was basically accidentally implying this POV anyway :P

* * *

Anyway then Sam’s hair gets made fun of again for real

I am definitely calling this a pointless personal vendetta. I know one when I see one

says someone who keeps typing “fight me” addressed to Robbie Thompson

* * *

the waitress in the diner was wearing the same uniform as Eve was at the diner in 6x19

not sure if that’s just a generic uniform tbh

the girl Sam hooks up with in 11x04 wearing the same one is probably more significant to Even than this lady on screen for 2 seconds :P

* * *

Obvious theme is obvious re: confronting your dark self because

> CHET:  
> It’s pretty dark in here. High-school dropout. A drunk like your daddy before you. Oh. You and Dad. Now, that’s a can of scorpions. 

Again with the fact even if season 7 isn’t particularly fun (and oh there are some dud episodes in here :P) it’s extremely emotionally consistent as we don’t even have that just as character stuff at random, but this gets picked up for deep attention in an episode coming up

* * *

> DEAN (on phone):  
> It’s like looking at a funhouse mirror. 

as far as I can tell with superwiki’s search function, that specific phrase is only used twice more, to refer to Gadreel eyeballing his two vessels from either side, in a kind of way where Metatron implants the phrase in his head and then he parrots it later to Sam. I thought of it because 9x18 = Robbie (and the more dramatic pay off), but the first instance was 9x09 = Buckleming so I don’t even know. Anyway, Gadreel had some real echoes back to Sam and Lucifer on his side of the story, so I feel like there must be some overlap in a meta somewhere beyond the “confront your dark self” obvious theme… *yawns* 

Later. :P

* * *

(hey if I managed to remember from like 1x03 to 7x03 I wanted to talk about Sam and sleep in that episode, then I can hold onto this thought until 9x18)

* * *

Leviathan!Dean winking at Dean is terrible and I can’t look away

but also, though I am trying really hard not to go on and on about how attractive they all are in season 7, this is one of the best scary eyes Dean moments for miles around, like, until season 9 makes it a regular feature:

([x](http://elizabethrobertajones.tumblr.com/post/90637465993))(and he’s saving that look for himself :P)

* * *

> CHET:  
> Tiny part of you thinks, maybe… after this is all done, you and Miss Sheriff can make your own little cabin in the woods. 

The leviathan is actually taunting Bobby that he’s gonna die tomorrow but this is one of those lines that immediately makes you assume Jody’s on the show’s hit list…

only not only does she survive Bobby but she’s still kicking and we only saw her 3 episodes ago

I don’t wanna say anything else and jinx her, but at least in terms of season 7, she was really set up over these 2 episodes just as an emotional sideplot character to Bobby - and again in the time travel episode she shows up as someone for Sam to bounce off of without it being a Jody episode as in about her. It’s really only season 9 onwards that starts delving back into Jody, but her use here anyway, and in other episodes before then, is very much toeing the line with a character that mostly exists for emotional support/to be someone they care about, and while that’s all well and good and a totally valid role… in other stories… in this one it makes you itch :P

* * *

> BOBBY:  
> Robert Browning. Poet. You got that name rattling around up there with the rest of my thoughts and feelings?
> 
> CHET:  
> It’s kind of hard to sift through all the drunken blackouts, but –
> 
> BOBBY:  
> “A man’s reach should exceed his grasp.”
> 
> CHET:  
> I like that. That’s actually lovely. Browning? After I eat you, I’m definitely gonna hit the library.

(There’s just something about the way they say “eat” that gets me every time??)

Anyway more data for my “Leviathans appreciate humanity, setting themselves up for their own downfall if they’d won” thing, to go along with their self-consuming nature)

* * *

I do wonder if you could entirely dissolve and kill a leviathan by dropping them in a vat of borax

I suppose good as

it does burn through the flesh in a way holy water does not with demons, where it seems to cause non-marking holy damage

* * *

The cop listening to Bobby and Dean’s phonecall about dissolving Leviathans and chopping their heads off though

Bobby casually boxing up his own head while he talks, on the other end of the line. Not shown on screen, his own symbolically killing his own dark self

* * *

of course Sam and Dean encounter the others’ leviathan doubles but Dean gets to do the head chopping on his own

* * *

> LEVIATHAN!DEAN:  
> I just want to let you know how much I’ve really grown to hate you and your brother since we’ve been wearing you. I just don’t get it. You could be anything. You’re strong, you’re uninhibited. You’re smart enough, believe it or not. But you’re so caught up in being good and taking care of each other.
> 
> SAM:  
> What do you care?
> 
> LEVIATHAN!DEAN:  
> Because it pisses me off! You’re wasting a perfectly good opportunity to subjugate the weak.

this is practically a glowing letter of recommendation

also says a lot more about Leviathans than the Winchesters, although the reminder that the Winchesters are actually smart - and that coming from the one wearing Dean - is always nice.

Also the reminder of how they are strong and scary and of course the whole plot of the episode is a reminder they’re easily mistaken for serial killers - and have that potential as their normal selves

* * *

I think Dean axe murdering Leviathan!Sam is one of the only times he ever kills Sam? He kills a LOT of Sam mirrors along the way though, just not many of them LOOK like Sam… He looks horrified about it

I can’t remember the story of how Robbie came to pitch First Born off the top of my head, but this whole thing has been in the fabric of the show forever anyway

but yeah again with the whole thing about him killing Amy, at least here in this part of the season there’s a real trend to suggest Dean would kill Sam? Or that he wants to, or perhaps that Sam fears it…

And putting that conflict between them over and over subtextually also adds to their general strife for the main argument they have here:

> LEVIATHAN!DEAN (V-O):  
> Here’s the deal.
> 
> Dean… thinks you’re nutballs. He thinks you’re off your game.

(Season 4 & 6 pushed Sam thinking Dean was weak (or at least, demon blood addled Sam, and soulless!Sam) so here we have an answer of what happens when Dean loses the same specific faith in Sam’s skill or judgement as Sam did in Dean)

* * *

> BOBBY:  
> Don’t open it. Even if it starts talking. Especially if it starts talking. 

Bahaha

…

Robbie really likes his decapitated heads in boxes

somehow I’ve brought up Baby 3-4 times this episode so I can only conclude my suggestion from 3 days ago when I started watching this is true, and Robbie really was atoning for this episode :P

(TBH WHEN THIS IS THE EPISODE HE HAS TO ‘ATONE’ FOR…)

* * *

This is the real turn around episode on the Leviathan threat - they also back off from this point for a little while for some MotW stuff and we catch up with them in the midseason by accident, but this episode tells us they CAN be fought which was part of their initial crushing depression metaphor: the sheer helplessness about them. Although Dean gets to do some decapitating and maybe work through some issues, and so he’s had this positive reinforcement too (but none for Sam right now - his issues aren’t tied to this plot it seems) it’s Bobby (and Jody) where we actually see positive reflection on their change of fortune and a humorous resolution to their first hurdle with the leviathan, defusing the problem and emotionally building Bobby up with the potential of something with Jody

While I recall nothing much else gets said about the Leviathan with Sam and Dean and they don’t get to muse on this victory as their own personal drama takes precedence.

* * *

Hey Dick! 

I love how awfully corporate this immediately gets… Having spent the year before last working temporarily in a field adjacent to corporate stuff, I have found it unnervingly true how CEOs look and smile like Dick Roman, and probably talk like him too :P

Like, I always thought he was a funny villain and pretty good for taking the metaphorical corporate thing (e.g. Zachariah) that the show had played with a lot for its villains/the power structure of the world, and actually literally implemented it, making the conflict the main characters up against these human power structures where their help can be equally likely a Prophet of the Lord as a nerd from the IT department (I can’t wait to parallel Kevin and Charlie’s intro episodes, if only for the distraction from musing on what happened to them next :P). As this conversation with the Leviathan in the FBI shows, they can field test their abilities to influence the world with very human power, making regular people just as much a threat to Sam and Dean as the monsters (or, again, Charlie, have regular people as much a HELP as a magical resource), and they use their human influence, resources, infrastructure etc to enact their plan rather than like with other storylines happening entirely off the grid, as it were.

I mean, Dick is one of the more obvious examples of White Guy In A Suit as the generic Supernatural villain, but he’s also a genuine use of the trope for its strengths as well as just presenting the villain that way as an unimaginative default… TBH Zach is one of the few/only angels who also lived up to the trope well - probably because he was introduced through It’s A Terrible Life, so the office kind of hung on him metaphorically for his characterisation… While other white guys in suits don’t bring the same evil corporate business vibe with them…

… even the ones who try really hard, since Crowley just popped up. He also runs Hell as a corporation, one of his most enduring themes, but he never hits social commentary in this same way, more like an enduring metaphor that’s amusing to remember is in there but is pretty much always just “lol corporate work is hell… geddit?”, but doesn’t get explored with this amount of thoroughness or attention to detail and focus

> CROWLEY:  
> I felt it was time we met in person. I’m Crowley. I run Hell.
> 
> MR ROMAN:  
> Yes, yes. Of course. I agree, 100%. High time we met.

the phrasing of that seems to be Dick 100%-ing the concept of Hell in a kind of vague fake affirmation. This is the first time we’ve seen Crowley since 7x01, where Cas graciously offered to subjugate him and make hell partially obsolete except for the fear factor and Cage storage. Once again Crowley is vying with a new antagonistic power on the scene, and coming off weak - he has to reach out to Dick, with no leverage (and he has no leverage until 7x22) so this is a real ego bruising that may be reminding him he’s just one demon even on a seat of power, not matching up to any and all comers since taking the seat.

Like, Dick puts Crowley so thoroughly in his place it’s no wonder he sulks for most of the season :P

> DICK ROMAN:  
> Now it’s your turn to listen. I’d sooner swim through hot garbage than shake hands with a bottom-feeding mutation like you. You demons are ugly, lazy, gold-digging whores. You’re less than humans, and they’re not good for much till you dip 'em in garlic sauce. I’d never work with you, Crowley. In fact, if I wasn’t busy with better things, I might actively wipe your kind from the face of the Universe. And you’d deserve it. Are we clear? 

This is the exact same threat of all demons being obliterated that inspired Crowley to turn on Lucifer and start helping the Winchesters in the first place.

(I ALWAYS prefer Crowley in this extremely reluctant ally position, so you can imagine how I’m actually hopeful for him in season 11 again for the first time in an age :P … season 9 could have sold the same thing better but Abaddon was written off in a disappointing enough way there never seemed to be enough of a threat for the potential interest available…)

Anyway, the delivery on this “listen here” from Dick is absolutely amazing threatening deadpan. I am so extremely fond of this performance even if it does seem understated and blatantly surface level evil… TBH I never see anyone talk about Dick except for making Dick jokes, so I don’t even know if fandom is inclined to like him or not??

Well, I do. :P The actor has just that amount of scene-stealing intensity to what he’s doing, he’s genuinely fun to have on screen. 

* * *

I can’t believe there’s a long enough shot of the back of the car to see the My Little Pony toy stowed in the boot so clearly as it’s the only point of colour

The car has stickers in it as well which are a bit harder to peel off, that show it definitely belonged to a family with a little girl - probably a single parent family if she was allowed free reign on the front seat - so aside from all the jokes, I see Dean as feeling somewhat bad for this car theft and he keeps the toy out of some sense of not being totally heartless about it? Like, he’s not SUCH an asshole he’d throw it out the window… if they’re going to eventually abandon the car, then when it gets found it can be returned to the people it was nicked from :P

* * *

Also: at least in this shot, no sign of the trenchcoat in the back of the car, although the boot is empty of everything except the duffle of Leviathan!Winchester heads and the pony, so that includes their own stuff not being stowed in the back… There’s always the chance the trenchcoat is in Dean’s bag for now, or back at the cabin or whatever.

* * *

Sam is sulking, anyway, for their second episode ending next to a river.

Probably the same river.

* * *

Oh yeah Sam’s bag was on the backseat, so Dean’s stuff probably is too

* * *

The great unanswered question of this episode: does that pier link back up with land in the direction Sam walked


	7. 7x07

If you saw how many attempts it took me to spell rewatch you may be nervous to read anything I have to say today

* * *

The recap is full of fancy powerpoint presentation transitions for some reason, and, in a demonstration of history being rewritten before it’s even really history, recaps Dean’s side of the story entire being about feeling shifty about Amy, right down to recasting that time he woke up in a panic after the nightmare in 7x05 as just about Amy, despite the fact the actual nightmare had all the other trauma including Cas in it

If we’re working on the assumption Cas was supposed to stay dead until much later in the season and at least until midseason this was written with no idea he’d be back, I suppose that getting anything even in spare mentions is still pretty impressive :P There’s a real theme to the episodes dropping mentions of Cas or more blatant allusions (even in the stuff which isn’t bemused squinting at Destiel subtext) but the structure of the season that they want us to be paying attention to, told by these recaps and the main meat of the fights, generally to be about what’s considered relevant to the story going forwards…

… only Cas didn’t die so this is somehow worse that we get this long stretch of no Cas but he has a huge weight on the narrative but they don’t think anything positive will ever come of it so it’s not given any fair weighting

*goes back to sulking about one of the unfavourite aspects of season 7*

* * *

the recap also showed 2 separate instances of Dean drinking, one without being a moment of quoted dialogue… I honestly can’t remember if there’s anything about that this episode but I suppose the reminder never hurts :P

* * *

blah blah ghost murder cold open

* * *

Dean shows up on screen with a fast food bag again. Also breaking into his next crap car… He scowls at the fast food wrappers all over the seat next to him and shoves them aside to make room for his OWN crappy fast food wrappers

s’probably a metaphor for cycles of unhealthy behaviour

* * *

This is one of those episodes where if you’re only sleepily half-watching the ghost investigation side of things while browsing your dash, the episode is pretty much entirely funky guitar music and honestly every year when I drag myself though a Supernatural rewatch or three, I end up getting so fed up of those few riffs they reuse 

* * *

I do wonder about the amount of spoons this town goes through

Despite being in the middle of a conflict, Sam and Dean aren’t wearing conflict colours - in fact they basically have the same tie and everything and their suits are about as synchronised as they get… probably the whole “got dressed without knowing what the other was wearing” thing that goes along with the whole “accidentally showed up at the same hunt without consulting each other thing”

Dean accepts that “one of us has to go home and change” isn’t happening when people’s lives are at stake

* * *

(there really hasn’t been much to talk about…)

* * *

> JIMMY:  
> You know, I give private energetic readings.
> 
> SAM:  
> No, thanks.
> 
> JIMMY:  
> A loss weighs on you. You’re angry. It’s complicated. Come see me, Agent.

hahaha the exact same applies to Dean far more than Sam especially if we’re talking root causes of the fight. By this point the sadness about Amy for Sam is probably not even the half of it compared to what he might feel about Dean going behind his back and not trusting him… Amy had symbolic importance to him but they literally knew each other for 2 days a decade or so apart

meanwhile Dean’s completely fucked up about a complicated loss that’s making him angry that’s informing his characterisation this entire season… 

(He gives a “glad that wasn’t me” smirk when they leave)

of course later this episode Dean gets an actual helpful message from beyond relating to his own situation… my own super effective tagging system turns up literally one random gifset from this episode already on my blog (I ALMOST lost my idle wondering if I’d finally hit the part of my rewatch where I’d always have content on my blog before I started watching), but there’s at least one post out there that I’ve seen (& probably reblogged) about the Destiel significance of that moment.

(As I was saying at the top… they’re literally showing us one thing and telling us another, with this… I don’t even think it was malicious or especially weird - if Cas is supposed to be permanently dead it’s a secondary plot thing that JUST informs Dean’s emotional situation, as Cas has been fridged for his sake, and gives them MORE free range to tell it that way since it’s not like he’s coming back or anything to make this all awkward… of course instead it just tells us a much deeper emotional story about Dean n Cas which would have been dishonest not to honour the way they did when Cas came back and that all directly funnels us into the season 8 Destiel bonanza off the back of the season 7 stuff between them, and, probably more unfortunately, gave the writers a lot of practice at this two levels of emotional storytelling where the main conflict was about one thing, but inserting Dean and Cas stuff in for extra characterisation brownie points was totally a thing - as always, refer to Buckleming to see what the anvillicious points they’ve been told to include are to find out what’s informing the rest of the storytelling in more subtle episodes)

* * *

After the next death, Sam and Dean show up the next day in red and blue ties because they coordinated and are back in conflict colours

* * *

There’s fresh fruit in a bowl on the table of the medium they end up spending the most emotional energy on

> MELANIE:  
> I need a drink.
> 
> DEAN:  
> I support that.

Is she a Dean parallel? I think she’s a Dean parallel

* * *

> MUSEUM GUIDE:  
> Yes, well… she didn’t have her sister’s charisma, but she looked after Kate. Sometimes, one’s true gift is taking care of others.
> 
> DEAN:  
> So, what happened to them?

Dean looks really upset by that before he speaks… empathy or sympathy? I know the stuff about the siblings in this section also has the “lol they can be secretly gay” joke, but it also more importantly raises the point that the actual biological siblings (aka the real Sam and Dean parallels) all fell out and didn’t get along, for obvious parallels which are obvious. He cites too much close proximity all their lives and this reason is offered as the obvious surface reason (and one Sam or Dean have complained about before at separate fall outs) but this more subtly brings in Dean’s overwhelming sense of responsibility for Sam - which in its darkest form can lead to him making decisions for Sam or overriding what Sam thinks because Dean has got used to having a deciding vote - again, more issues which are really just their own problems with each other that got dragged into the Amy thing

(I MEAN the whole “pretended to be siblings so they could be gay together” really covers more similar ground to Dean telling Cas he was like a brother to him while them not being actually related but actually each other’s love interests :P Especially as in the whole line of thought I’ve seen expressed several times around the fandom that Dean not really self-analysing very much and realising he’s in love with Cas that way under all the layers of repression, would be much happier to understand another strong bond as being similar to the pre-existing closest relationship in his life without getting into all the stuff that makes it scary and different for him… Not sure I’d go so far as to say this was his big gay realisation about Cas but it’s something challenging his thoughts anyway)

* * *

> MUSEUM GUIDE:  
> I’m sorry, I don’t normally do this during business hours, but do you know an Eleanor… or an Ellen? She seems quite concerned about you. She wants to tell you – pardon me – if you don’t tell someone how bad it really is, she’ll kick your ass from beyond. You have to trust someone again eventually. 

Can’t believe this episode confirms everyone watches the Winchester soap opera from Heaven.

TBH by this point Ash MUST have found them and got them to the Roadhouse so I can’t imagine they wouldn’t be keeping track all together :P And then Jo gets to pop down and actually visit for a few minutes of interaction with Dean and goes back to tell Ellen how he’s doing and Ellen just  _flips_  and is like “dammit that boy gets within 100 meters of a psychic I am giving them such an earful to pass onto him…” 

And only needs a 3 episode wait to jump on him and shake Dean by the ear from beyond the grave. :P

* * *

Of course Sam and Dean aren’t in the place where they can healthily communicate so actually they just yell at each other for a bit even if being shaken by this did try to spur Dean (very badly) to talk about feelings-adjacent shit with Sam 

Sam apparently is venting all his anger by digging the grave in the next scene :P

> SAM:  
> I  _did_  know her, Dean.
> 
> DEAN:  
> Yeah, which is why you couldn’t do it.
> 
> SAM stops.
> 
> DEAN:  
> Look, I get it. There are certain people in this world, no matter how dangerous they are, you just can’t.
> 
> SAM turns to face DEAN.
> 
> SAM:  
> Don’t pull that card! That’s bull. Look, if I’ve learned one thing, it’s that if something feels wrong, it probably is!

Did… Did Dean just compare Cas to someone who was an actual love interest of Sam’s? I know WE make the comparison but I did not expect that from him :P

Sam either missed the subtext, or doesn’t like Dean pulling that card to win an argument because he thinks the Dean n Cas drama doesn’t remotely apply to Sam n Amy

… I mean Sam did helpfully stab Cas in the back for them 

Although Dean also did eventually agree they had to kill Godstiel and came up with the whole Death thing and even asked him to do it, so maybe Sam’s pissed that because Dean did that he has what looks like a shaky moral high ground on “if you just thought about it maybe killing her was exactly the right thing to do I mean look at me I managed to do it”

(And then has spent the last however long drinking himself to sleep and waking up in a terrified panic about the eventual end of Cas but shhhh)

… 

this argument is so muddy and annoying I literally do not have a side except for “oh god how did this fight last until midseason?”

* * *

Bah, poor Camille. :( She didn’t have to die to prove they messed up the salt n burn! Melanie could have saved her and then they put her on a bus out of town if they didn’t want her in the rest of the episode

*grinds teeth some more*

* * *

Anyway, she helplessly watches her friend die and then gets a big hug from Dean, and if nothing else this episode really goes for the whole Cas subtext so Dean empathising with someone who helplessly watched their friend die is a thing :P 

* * *

> MELANIE:  
> Hopefully? Does it hurt ‘em? Burning their bones?
> 
> DEAN:  
> I never really thought about it. Probably, yeah.
> 
> MELANIE:  
> Good.

Noooo~ooo you’re going to have to burn Bobby’s last tether to the mortal plane by the end of the seaaaason 

…

did they know about that at all at the time of writing? :P

I mean did they even know they were KILLING him yet?

* * *

Anyway Sam shoots the psychic guy responsible for everything, so yay conflict resolution skills? I’m not actually sure if/how that fits into the ongoing drama or if Sam was just being a badass and there’s presumably only a few minutes left to wrap everything up in 

I certainly do not want to speculate on what the psychic was doing with the bones as having any relevance outside of the pun afterwards :P

* * *

Pfft, after the Burger Date there was a few different posts floating around pointing out family vs love interest sitting at a table, and Sam and Dean were sitting opposite here and then Melanie showed up and Sam excused himself and left, and she sat down at the adjacent seat to Dean… I mean it’s not exactly a weird cinematography thing to show people closer like that for love interest than family, it’s just hilarious we literally had Sam and Melanie swap being the one sitting with Dean but picked those two different chairs, when this is something people have picked up on as being used to frame Dean n Cas romantically.

* * *

They actually mention Camille again so at least she didn’t stop existing emotionally after being pointlessly murdered >.>

* * *

I am in a pitiful emotional state entirely of my own making after having an “aaaww!” moment after seeing how suddenly vulnerable and hopeful Dean looked when Melanie grabbed his hand to pretend to palm read it after they discuss how she’s a 1 episode side character only intended to show us what’s in Dean’s heart at the moment and not a viable long term love interest, and then she offers him a reading on his love life (re: her; symbolically, re: life in general) and tells him 

> DEAN:  
> But, uh, hey. You never know. It’s not like you can tell the future, right?
> 
> MELANIE:  
> Hmm.
> 
> MELANIE takes DEAN’s hand, turns it over and looks at his palm.
> 
> MELANIE:  
> Well, answer’s hazy. Try again later.
> 
> DEAN:  
> Right.

and that’s the end of the dialogue and we go to Sam putting his bag in the trunk of the car Dean stole - and HEY WHAT’S THAT IN THE TRUNK?

hahaha murder me it’s our first (only outside of deleted scenes?) glimpse of him hauling the fucking trenchcoat around

and it’s not like their discussion doesn’t remind us that Dean’s core issues, which go way further back than how sketchy he was acting after killing Amy but were part of WHY he ended up doing it, were…

> DEAN:  
> Of course, ever since Cas, I’m having a hard time trusting anybody.

meaning when you jump from all these completely unconnected things this little last sequence of the episode and actually connect them all up to make a picture of Dean the miserable mourning betrayed and bereaved lover, it is TERRIBLE

* * *

OH they actually resolve things here - I totally forgot because when I was skimming the list of episodes I saw what was coming up next and only remembered they were separated in that… I forgot BECAUSE of episode-related events, and they actually started it together… or not, but having resolved things before being separated :P

I guess one more manufactured conflict before the end of this run of MotW just because we can’t have Sam and Dean *gasp* working together

* * *

Okay I was skimming ahead a bit to get to my point about one piece of Destiel here, but also this is the full context:

> SAM:  
> What I’m saying is… I get why you did it. You were just trying to make sure no one else got hurt. But here’s the thing. You can’t just look me in the face and tell me you’re fine. I mean, you’re not sleeping, you drink for the record –
> 
> DEAN:  
> Oh, here we go.
> 
> SAM:  
> Look, whatever. Last one to preach, I know. But… Just be honest with me. How are those the actions of someone who knows they did the right thing?
> 
> DEAN:  
> You want me to be honest?
> 
> SAM:  
> Yeah.
> 
> DEAN:  
> I went with my gut. And that felt right. I didn’t trust her, Sam. Of course, ever since Cas, I’m having a hard time trusting anybody. And as far as how I been acting… I don’t know. Maybe it’s 'cause I don’t like lying to you. You know, it doesn’t feel right. So, yeah, you got me there. I been climbing the walls.

Sam seems to have missed that Dean was Not Okay before he killed Amy (fair enough - 3 weeks of sofa bedrest for Dean and whatever Sam was doing when not lurking in the corner like he was in the generic family scene we saw in 7x03 to establish how they’d passed the time - so all their angst was set aside to sleep and watch soap operas so perhaps it was difficult to connect the definitely Cas related downwards spiral to this, as Dean may have been settled in with his issues buried deeper over that time (and Sam was busy spacing out mid-conversation much more frequently before he made an effort to get back in the game, distracting himself much more effectively so who knows what he really deeply observed about Dean in that time) 

So Sam attributes Dean’s weird behaviour entirely to the post-Amy murder time, since it was only after that they hit the road together again, missing the Cas connection. 

Dean, actually taking Ellen’s advice, owns this behaviour, but takes it back to Cas rather than letting Sam believe it was “just” about Amy so he genuinely is letting Sam know how bad it’s been. And his voice gets all wobbly just on the bit about Cas. Then he kind of ducks back behind not liking to lie to Sam which puts us back in the area of Dean pretending he was acting totally normal until after he killed Amy, despite the fact he really blatantly wasn’t… If nothing else, I started my 7x03 rewatch musing about how he and Bobby never had an onscreen discussion about Dean’s terrifying phonecall at the end of 7x02, again confessing how bad his headspace was BEFORE the manufactured drama of the season started…

So like Sam not telling Dean all the emotional details about Amy, Dean’s not telling Sam all the emotional details about his own breakdown 


	8. 7x08

You know considering how many episodes Dabbflin wrote it’s pretty impressive they only struck out a few times… 

(I’ve never seen this episode as AS hateful as some people do because A: Becky was already kind of a terrible representation of the fans, and they ran with that specific portrayal which is sigh-worthy and not the most imaginative thing they could have done with her, but boils down to not finding anything NEW to do with her as a character to keep the “crazed fan” stuff on the sidelines of her personality instead of just leaping right in with the terrible portrayal, and B: this episode’s other flaw of being deeply un-self-aware and not a meta episode at all kind of cancels out the worst of it because it doesn’t use Becky to open a dialogue with the fans? She IS her own character, just a poorly used one… Informed with terrible tropes… and unfortunately still the only avatar for the fandom while they use her to play with the terrible tropes… 

…I’m like 90% sure they basically just started plotting this to find an excuse to introduce Garth so)

* * *

I forgot that a good chunk of the lighting in the opening scene frames Dean against the colours of the pan flag, ish… The bi flag colours are behind the lady he’s talking to 

this is vaguely redeeming for a direction choice to open the episode slowly panning up the lady’s legs. 

(This is the director’s first episode and he seems to have exclusively done the weird comedy episode per season since - like one of his other credits for example is the season 9 dog episode)

* * *

> WAITRESS:  
> We all need to face ourselves sometime.
> 
> DEAN:  
> Maybe he does.
> 
> WAITRESS:  
> Wasn’t talking about him.

I know that was a come on line, but it’s also thematically relevant all the time :P 

Especially since Dean has already decapitated himself in the last few episodes

* * *

> SAM:  
> Uh, apparently, uh, pink is for loyalty. 

This line probs doesn’t mean anything either but I’m thinking of 4x18 (where the Winchester Gospels stuff all started!) and how the conversation with Dean n Cas was in the aggressively pinkly lit parking lot of the motel and how it showed Cas’s shifting loyalty from Heaven to Dean

hmmm

* * *

I can’t believe they blew up an actual fucking cake for this

a REAL cake

* * *

Sam’s hair is nice this episode

he’s getting rained on and Becky’s hair is getting damp too but it’s really bringing out the floof in Sam’s hair

* * *

Aside from the whole non-con disaster of an episode where Becky roofies Sam repeatedly, which I think we all understand sucks so I’m just going to edge around that, I’m kind of annoyed just about how it’s messing with Sam’s head again when he’s already messed up there - Dean doesn’t know Sam’s being roofied and he starts off the episode talking about worrying that Sam will have another mental breakdown so of course this is doubly unwelcome for Sam’s current situation of the extra danger he was in, AND it splits Dean and Sam off from each other one episode after they reconciled and is a very obvious Manufactured Drama… I am sort of confused, without remembering 7x09′s opening very clearly, if they were meant to be tentatively only just back to working together and somehow the writers messed up and realised they had one more episode, or if they really did just feel like having a theme of for whatever reason having divisive conflict all the way through the opening of the season, but it’s kind of exhausting and I’d understand if it was a continuation of the Amy thing, but it’s not, it’s just a random extension of the theme and I almost think it wasn’t really considered in that way, but now we have Dean driving around snooping on Sam and not trusting his decisions to run off with Becky immediately after they resolved the Amy thing

… it could be a belated narrative parallel to show that Dean was right to be suspicious and sneaky since Becky has an antagonistic role right up until the demon turns out to be the real problem, but trying to prove one of them right without a good monster episode that vindicates Sam’s stance is also annoying :P

* * *

Anyway then Dean magnanimously brings Sam a waffle iron to be the bigger person

* * *

(Dean is doing nothing wrong and has no idea how this looks but I’m busy sitting over here scowling at the wider narrative, because a common anti-Dean argument is the narrative doing shit like this and while I am more of a Dean!girl if I had to pick, it still annoys me that this is a thing just for giving other people ammo for the “poor victimised Sam” approach, which this episode also doesn’t help with :P Although Sam at least gets to make it very clear to Becky what she did is wrong and why…)

* * *

Honestly especially with them scowling at each other I’m seeing a more than superficial resemblance between Dean and Becky, and that’s weirding me out.

I suppose Dean already has a history of overriding Sam’s bodily autonomy (bringing him back to live/cramming his soul back in him like it or not) so this is a very very twisted parallel about it

Also Sam’s wife looks SO AFFRONTED when Dean accuses her of using “some mojo” on Sam like I have done nothing wrong in my life ever

* * *

I hAVe LITERALLY JUST

so

Demon collecting on deals early to make better buck faster 

sound like a familiar episode concept? We were talking about THIS episode last time there was a NEW episode

> DEAN:
> 
> Or maybe she’s part of it. Because for whatever reason, you’re her dream.

I know I know Dean doesn’t sell his soul to meet him or anything but LOL Dean meeting an idol/object of his fannish desire in an episode co-written by Dabb with the exact same use of demons to create the case as this one

* * *

Anyway Becky and Sam make it sound like she’s come between them like a love triangle and I’m not so here for that

of course Sam makes it more about how Dean was taking care of him and now he is all better he doesn’t  _need_  Dean any more… “need” is such a weighty word when it comes to Dean and love - in any form, Sam or Cas, or anyone as I was talking about how he probably didn’t feel “needed” by Ben and Lisa in the way he best understood it as love - that it’s (probably semi-accidentally) a really low blow. Last episode, though, we had Dean pulling a worried/uncomfortable face about a sibling act where one of them looked after the other, so combined with Sam being in a bad way but them fighting all season, he’s in a strange place about being needed by Sam or not, or if he even wants that or just feels like it’s a burden…

Of course being told he’s not needed would get a reaction in the other direction

he stomps off to tattle to Bobby some more, begging him to come up here and talk some sense into Sam, but instead gets Garth sent to help him with the case

(I feel like Bobby knew exactly what Garth was like and figured he’d be not much use for the case, but perhaps exactly what Dean needed personally? :P)

* * *

Sam, meanwhile, appreciates Becky’s affection in a way that makes me so sad that this is how teary eyed he got over being obsessively loved

* * *

Dean’s permanent wtf headache around Garth though

They’re all dressed up for their fake interviews, and Becky obliviously wears a trenchcoat.

(Obliviously? She must have read the rest of the Winchester gospels and at least known some of the events of the Apocalypse and therefore Cas’s existence… Would she know what it all meant? We don’t know until season 8 that the rest of the books Chuck wrote are online and Becky doesn’t mention them, although she was up to date with the plot while she was going out with Chuck…)

* * *

(Of course there’s the eternal parallel of Sam being paired with a lady friend and Dean with a guy)

* * *

*adds another instance of Sam being knocked out this season*

Someone should tally a graph per season of Sam concussions and see how bad it is

* * *

> SAM:  
> It’s never something else. When are there ever two crazy things in town at the same time? 

Has that ever actually happened to them? Even now?

I feel like at some point it literally should be 2 crazy things that have absolutely no relation to each other

I mean how common are vampires these days and can they live in the same town a witch who starts hexing her neighbours on a bad day?

(I know Out With The Old starts with cursed objects and ends with Leviathan but there was a correlation)

(And yes I know it’s good storytelling but the show is nearly 12 seasons old it is allowed to get desperate :P)

* * *

> GUY:  
> Yes! And I’m very protective of my ass. It’s one of my best features. Becky, I’m prepared to offer you a one-time-only deal. Not ten years. Twenty-five. No pianos, guaranteed. Just Sam.
> 
> BECKY:  
> For my soul.
> 
> GUY:  
> And your promise to not breathe a word about this to the Winchesters,

Fear is an extremely powerful motivator

(It looks like the transcript doesn’t know his name but it’s literally Guy)

* * *

> BECKY:  
> I mean, not that you’re a loser, but you had that whole character arc about being a freak, and… I can relate.
> 
> SAM:  
> [muffled] Oh, my God.

Ignoring Becky, of course once more we’re dragging up the early seasons because “freak” was said like 20 times in 7x03 and so we’re pretty clear on it informing Sam’s ongoing arc too

* * *

Despite being miles from the Vegas bar with that colour scheme, the banner behind Dean is in pink, yellow and blue again and he has a red background 

it’s literally the same colour scheme

* * *

Amazingly Sam is briefly knocked out AGAIN in the fight

* * *

Crowley’s produced his more familiar beard between appearances and it’s throwing me off because I associate him with it much stronger with season 8 onwards just because he was barely in this season

with all the red light falling on them I am feeing weird about all those bars Dean and Crowley hung out in over season 9 & 10

this is one of those really amazing Crowley scenes though where he just shows up and raves about how Hell has integrity and isn’t Wall Street, like, really good Crowley characterisation here A+ (I focus on the positives on this episode :P)

although we haven’t had much about the higher up power structure of the Leviathans, thanks to Dick’s introduction the coding of them as Wall Street businessmen is already a thing, so this is also setting up Crowley vs Dick some more, just showing us how Crowley is hurting and perhaps his scramble to enforce Hell’s rules properly 

if nothing else he does at this stage seem really fond of a well-run hell, even if he is bored of it in later seasons after all his brushes with humanity. At least in these early years of control, he was working hard to manage it well. 

* * *

Dean’s got his scowly “ugh Crowley” look which makes him look 2 years older

aka season 9 :P

* * *

Anyway then we’re finally done ritually shaming Becky and she disappears off the show so far for good, tail between her legs

*sighs despondently*

I know the turn around on how they see their fans is relatively recent - I almost think maybe only 9x03′s mess made them realise anything about how the fandom operated emotionally and even then only the tuned in writers like Robbie have really responded on the show? This is depressing but they had a pretty unevolved idea of fans and I suspect someone like Robert Singer still secretly thinks of all the fangirls as Becky…

it also makes me feel itchy to critique her because I imagine someone from the show reading me doing that and just imagining me with an OTT Becky Rosen scowl instead of sleepy good natured prodding something I love with the weary affection of a dog that won’t stop pooping indoors :P

* * *

I literally have no idea what the last conversation was really getting at because if it was emotional development it never really got used for anything much so far as I recall :P It was a nice moment and the stuff about Sam saying he knows his way around his own problems a bit better now is good and probably needed to explain the lack of expensive Lucifer appearances in random MotW, and they talk about how they apparently like going camping, which seems random but I’m pretty sure next episode opens with campers, and Sam Dean and Bobby heading into the woods themselves, if I remember episode order correctly (I DO NOT WANT TO REMEMBER IT CORRECTLY HEY I KNOW LET’S WALLOW IN THE POINTLESS MANUFACTURED BRO DRAMA FOR 30 MORE EPISODES HAHAHA HA HA)

\- wait the DVD player just randomly after all the various warnings in 100 languages that I was letting run, started playing the All Out Of Love singalong in the car

i am so distracted I don’t even remember where I was going with this

Sam and Dean tell each other they’re grown adults now and they don’t have to need each other to do everything for them… not sure how much this message sticks over the season - obviously Dean is spared making a shitty decision for Sam to fix his visions, so the bro drama of Gamble era fizzles out when Cas takes that damage onto himself, and as far as I remember it’s pretty plain sailing until season 8 gets back to the manufactured (but at least plot arc manufactured instead of MotW manufactured) drama :P I think the fact this did fizzle means there just isn’t that much foreshadowing in the emotional development between them for any huge event, but also even though nothing much happens with it here, they get back to their old ways in Carver Era, so in the long term it wasn’t a lesson learned, done and dusted thing, but just a brief positive hump in their very bumpy road.

Also Sam tells Dean now he doesn’t need to worry about him any more because Sam is a grown adult, it’s good because he can start looking after himself and if there is one really consistent theme this season it is Dean horrifically not looking after himself

I mean the next episode is the disgusting drugged sandwich episode, right?

(now actually hoping there IS something between me and it)

NOPE OH BOY I AM SO NOT READY


	9. 7x09

Or: what kind of a dick kills off Bobby??

I can’t believe I have an actual urgent deadline to watch the next 2 episodes

I have some really uncanny terrible luck with the timing of this rewatch

* * *

This recap makes me feel like Crowley grew the beard out of stress for the Leviathan thing

* * *

Welcome to our first recap in 6 episodes that was NOT the Amy drama! \o/

It summarised a LOT of the Leviathan stuff, but for the Winchester side of things, focussed on their laying low and hiding from the authorities as a result, and a very brief “I’m not okay” for Dean without any related explanation

(since, you know, the Amy thing ended up being one whole scapegoaty story for their own issues and not even about her and that conversation from 7x07 they snatched a soundbite from Dean for, even admitted that it went deeper and further back than Amy…)

* * *

the cold open is basically a send up of the cold open of Wendigo, while we’re busy referencing all the first couple of seasons obsessively nearly every episode

I was wondering in Wendigo about the different rules for monsters before they worked them out properly… Wendigoes were transformed humans who were twisted by cannibalism and a very dark metaphor for what lurks in humanity… we’ve rarely returned to that theme that ANYONE can turn into a monster, but this mirror episode to it has the same monster in essence - a twisted human - but it’s an artifically created Wendigo. Of course the original Wendigoes were attributed with turning to cannibalism out of hunger in a bad winter, and these monsters are also affected by hunger as their main motivation

(I mean most monsters are, but it was this one’s creation process too… Almost like the Leviathan didn’t necessarily add much to the humans to turn them into monsters by whatever scientific definition for that would exist in the SPN universe, but just found a way to unlock the latent Wendigo in a person…)

* * *

*waves at the green cooler* It sees a lot of action this season with this unfortunate change in their lifestyle

Dean, secretly established as germphobic and appreciating the finer things in life, has a little meltdown about the shitty life they lead now, which blows up into his own depression projected onto the entire planet:

> DEAN:  
> That’s just great. This is stupid. Our quality of life is crap. We got Purgatory’s least wanted everywhere, and we’re on our third “The World’s Screwed” issue in, what, three years? We’ve steered the bus away from the cliff twice already.
> 
> SAM:  
> Someone’s got to do it.
> 
> DEAN:  
> What if the bus wants to go over the cliff?

For the ongoing Bobby and Dean Terrible Support Network (oooh man this episode)

> BOBBY:  
> Stop trying to wrestle with the big picture, son. You’re gonna hurt your head. 

He starts off well anyway :P

Dean grabs a beer as a distraction and Bobby changes the subject to the MotW

“Written by Ben Edlund” flashes up right as they’re talking about what kind of monster it is and how it could have a horse head or huge wings or whatever and I am just thinking about the AU where the show is exactly the same but Ben Edlund had a literally infinite budget to fuck around with :P

* * *

I like how Dean leaves Sam to explain glampers

not even getting into that one one with Bobby. Just… disown the concept and let Sam take the fall for knowing about it :P

* * *

Rick! I suppose Dean mostly liked him because he was a funny stoner, which was accidentally sandwich caused and not his actual personality, but hey

Dean’s always had an affinity to that personality type… I mean Edlund’s first episode I think was the one with Andy, back in season 2, and Dean *loved* him :P

* * *

Meanwhile Dean has currently memorised the name of the waiter Brandon because he uses the name before he really looks at him, so he probably checked the name once before

I swear the aftermath of the “do you want to look like a Hostess?” comeback is like 90% on the way to being a blooper

it has also just occurred to me that at least one other instance of Dean being terrible at comebacks - the shortbus one - is in an Edlund episode. Now trying to remember the other examples… I think Robbie’s done it at least once so this hopefully hasn’t left the show with Edlund at least. :P

* * *

Bobby is using chopsticks to eat his thing :D

* * *

Also Sam’s hair has reached peak season 7 and he needs to stop sweeping it back like it was last episode because it’s much better when he just lets it flop

* * *

> BOBBY:  
> Bunch of birds shoved up inside each other. Shouldn’t play God like that. 

WISE ADVICE

heheh

I wonder what he’d have to say about the culinary disasters Dean was trying in season 10 and 11?

* * *

> BOBBY:  
> You don’t shoot Bambi, jackass. You shoot Bambi’s mother. 

I’m going to miiiissss him

* * *

> DEAN:  
> You used to take us hunting. Remember? Dad had a case, he’d just dump us on you. Shoot, you must have taught us most of the outdoor tracking we know. 

Last few retcons of Bobby into their childhood while he’s still around :P

I mean his intro in season 1 never DISALLOWED for it, just that the historical stuff with Bobby has spiralled so much that between not knowing they would be this family for what is still the significant length of the show, and also I guess just the actors not knowing each other yet, it was all a lot less “oh yay it’s Bobby!” than it could have been 

Anyway the fact Sam and Dean both have gone camping and like doing it was I think only established for the first time randomly at the end of last episode and now we’re finding out why

that was actual emotional build up to losing Bobby >.>

* * *

Rick does not seem that bothered to have lost Phil

… Dean says later that he liked Rick and that just makes me sad because all we really see is him not caring about anything and giggling at tragic situations and it especially becomes about losing this friend of his and not caring?

yeah I’m making it DeanCas but I mean do you think Edlund would actually fight me on that? :P

* * *

Bobby takes an awesome shot because he’s allowed to be amazing since this is his last normal episode

* * *

> DEAN takes a wallet out of the creature’s pants.
> 
> DEAN:  
> Oh, that is just gonna ruin the leather.

I like how a bait and switch on Dean being germphobic is one of the first things that makes someome ask out loud how he’s feeling

it wasn’t even really implied earlier Dean is THAT squeamish :P

I mean I suppose also on him just not being very helpful but he certainly sounded like he was moments away from saying how gross it was before deviating into “ruin the leather”

* * *

I am belatedly realising that Dean getting grossed out of eating his food in 7x05 by the chicken feet for the spell was to contrast here and him saying how hungry he is while Sam and Bobby do the most disgusting autopsy on the show

* * *

Honestly the use of “eaten” this season is completely coded to mean Leviathan…

> BOBBY:  
> Well, that explains all the people who got eaten in the last eight days. 

* * *

Dean somehow wins for the least unconvincing “I’M FINE” of the season in a year when Sam keeps saying that to blow off 24/7 Lucifervision

* * *

> BOBBY:  
> There’s something wrong with you, Dean.
> 
> DEAN:  
> Are you kidding? I’m fine! I – I actually feel great. The best I’ve felt in a couple months. Cas? Black goo? I don’t even care anymore. And you know what’s even better? I don’t care that I don’t care. I just want my damn slammer back.

*quiet sobbing because Edlund letting us know it really is all about Cas and the drama in between Cas’s death and here doesn’t matter any more* 

Even if Cas doesn’t come back for a little bit/still wasn’t meant to, Dean’s journey through the season is still all one long breakdown about Cas and don’t you forget it >.>

It’s so horrible that Dean says how much he doesn’t care, since that implies how much he DOES care the rest of the time… and all about Cas. 

* * *

Wasn’t the first Biggersons in an Edlund episode in season 3?

* * *

Sam and Bobby have their devastating conversation about Dean… 

Despite being distraught I am reflecting on the side angles revealing that the reason Sam’s season 7 sideburns are so … whatever… is they are triangles pointing in the same direction as his really pointy nose so from side on it really… I dunno, emphasises? Makes the sharp angles of his face somehow look really intentional?

it does something dramatic to the aesthetic of his face

l have no idea why I think season 7 Sam looks so good… it’s a struggle :P

* * *

> SAM:  
> Good. So you don’t worry about him?
> 
> BOBBY:  
> What do you mean? Before the Turducken?

“Oh no do you want to talk about actual feelings?”

> SAM:  
> Yeah. Yeah, I kind of mean more like, uh… more like ever since my head broke… and we lost Cas. I mean, you ever feel like he’s – he’s going through the same motions but he’s not the same Dean, you know? 

This isn’t just emphasising Dean’s need to look after Sam - a theme that the last few episodes have poked at half-heartedly - but Cas was the one responsible for breaking Sam’s head… In fact you could argue the “lost Cas” really happened there, as that would be what REALLY makes him irredeemable to Dean, at least in easy actions… All of Sam’s trauma this season traces back to Cas doing that to him, so whichever way you shake it this is all about Cas and then ties back to Dean’s mental state

Also, Sam is just voicing this for the first time, 2 episodes after “after Cas I’m having a hard time trusting anybody” so he’s clearly been ruminating on it and I guess started to build up a much bigger picture than the one he had been originally working with, maybe even drawing a line between Dean’s meltdown in this episode all the way back to the end of season 6 - not even just Cas’s death, but the betrayal too

this is as close as Bobby and Sam ever really get to addressing the elephant in the room, and I have seen a meta pointing out how rare it is they talk to each other alone and then further from that, about Dean. This episode is making sure to give Sam and Dean both a chance to talk to Bobby before he dies, but these conversations are not perfect, merely checking in on things and leaving a lot of loose ends and not coming with magical sage advice…

After Sam says his whole thing about it not being so bad that he’s tormented constantly by Satan, Bobby just says, 

> BOBBY:  
> You always were one deep little son of a bitch. 

I suppose there isn’t really a solution to it and it’s good for Sam to talk about it - since he and Dean have so many communication problems between themselves it would always get messed up in a way that it’s much simpler with Bobby

* * *

Meanwhile: Edgar and Doctor Sexy talk about how Dick is coming

* * *

Now it’s time for Dean and Bobby to have their last little chat! 

> BOBBY:  
> How’s your head?
> 
> DEAN:  
> Well, I think the slammer’s pretty much wore off. In between that and the 20 cups of coffee, I’m nicely tense and alarmed.
> 
> BOBBY:  
> I wasn’t talking about that.

[I keep scrolling my dash and bumping into promo pics of a NEW BOBBY EPISODE. STOOOP]

Anyway I always like the exchange because it’s like the opposite of letting Dean off easy… The writing knows Bobby’s done for but Bobby doesn’t - we’re just coincidentally seeing him accidentally having a final important moment with both Winchesters but to Bobby I guess it’s more that he hasn’t seen them for a few episodes, just been dealing with their drama over the phone… Don’t know if he intended to catch Sam for a word in the same way but this is definitely an ambush.

(I mean he saw at the start of the season how Sam was coping so checking he’s still upright and functioning and not in any immediate danger is as good as Bobby can do because he doesn’t know he’s about to die so what is more a check in with Sam seeing that he’s been coping pretty well all episode is more like just verifying that things are as tentatively good as they look, and he winds up the conversation somewhat satisfied with how Sam is?)

Meanwhile, Bobby has known all season that Dean is feeling suicidal, and he knows he’s way more at risk because while Sam is fighting to stay upright with a serious motivation to STAY upright, Dean is making all sorts of comments suggesting laying down and giving up… I think Bobby accurately diagnoses here that Dean would choose to go out by Death by Monster, just inviting a workplace accident on their dangerous job. 

Their discussion turns into an argument, and Bobby gets angry at Dean for this mindset which, while it’s all coming from a place of concern, is probably one of the less helpful approaches you can use on Dean. Dean’s allergic to direct confrontation or questions, and you can see that in the way he acts in other times like all the bro fights where he won’t share how he feels, but also for example with Cas in 7x23 he finally gets the good conversation they’ve needed the entire time by indirectly asking Cas for help “just” fetching Baby.

Bobby had a good thing going as a support group watching the soap operas with Dean while he had a broken leg but they didn’t actually talk, and now Dean’s been out there suffering and spiralling down, and it’s made it much more urgent, but that means direct questions and that means them getting angry with each other.

So really it’s the last part of the conversation which does the most work:

> BOBBY:  
> I’ve been to enough funerals. I mean it. You die before me, and I’ll kill you.
> 
> DEAN:  
> We need to scrape some money together, get you a condo or something.

of course all this is stuff which can only get thrown into sharp relief later after Bobby has died, so throwing in a ton of cruel dramatic irony on their conversation that Bobby will literally be dead by this time tomorrow makes it that much more relevant… I mean Dean stays in a depressive place the rest of the season, but at the very least he has to contend with this message from Bobby to find something to fight for now as Bobby’s like, dying wish.

(So of course his actual dying wish, the co-ordinates he reads on Dick’s desk, does becomes Dean’s obsessive new mission because it’s this conversation which tells him to fixate onto something… Between that and Frank telling him to keep on faking it until he makes it, he gets a lot of very dubiously healthy advice that does nonetheless keep him going until the end of the season… Since we can take Dean and Bobby as parallels to each other, Bobby going vengeful over the remainder of the season is a parallel to him putting Dean on the same revenge quest - and it’s Dean who kills Dick in the end - with all the unhealthy coping mechanisms of using revenge as a motivation to get up in the morning that you’d expect…)

Anyway getting ahead of myself, Bobby is still alive right now

* * *

Also:

> BOBBY:  
> Come on, now. You tried to hang it up and be a person with Lisa and Ben. And now here you are with a mean old coot and a van full of guns. That ain’t person behavior, son. You’re a hunter, meaning you’re whatever the job you’re doing today. 

I think this is the only time they’re mentioned? It is especially sad because it really draws a line under what Dean can and can’t have, and Bobby dehumanises hunters in the sense that this is one of the starkest us and them vs the people they save, the normal everyday people… It’s an aspirational life (hence Bobby leaving Dean to it over the year between season 5 & 6) but it’s also Not For Them, and if you can’t break into it then you’re clearly just not meant to have that sort of happiness… Bobby doesn’t always represent a worst case scenario - in fact the social hunter hub retired research guy role he often plays is an aspirational ending for a hunter to stay in their lane but get a more comfortable retirement - and the MoL bunker teases that endgame just by existing since that is pretty much what the organisation did, and the Winchesters co-opt it into their hunter lifestyle. BUT Bobby (and Rufus) at times are used to show the WORST case scenario of old hunters, and in this respect Bobby is a poor role model 

[@kayanem](https://tmblr.co/mqDd4r4TyqDdraQ4Q827nog) absolutely killed me [with this comment about Bobby](http://kayanem.tumblr.com/post/141433981379/spn-hellatus-rewatch-7x06-slash-fiction-theres-a) from 7x06:

> 22\. Bobby … don’t give your cute Sheriff a decapitated head. I said I was coming back to that last parallel between Bobby and Dean, and this is it. Jody tries to clean up Bobby’s life, tries to surround him with something better, tries to show him that he’s loved and appreciated and that he does good things for people and should be proud of that. And Bobby gives her a head in a box (HIS head in a box, no less); he gives her this horrible, twisted, monstrous thing, and then lets her leave. This is what Bobby thinks of himself, this is what Bobby has to offer, and he knows it’s awful. 

and I think this is a continuation of that theme - that Bobby and Jody were adorable but doomed because of this dark, self-defeating, feeling of himself as a monster… If we look at the vampire!Dean episode, it’s basically the same thing, showing Dean’s monstrous self to Lisa and that being the catalyst that ends their relationship

SO Bobby as Dean’s darkest mirror (even while a beloved father figure) kind of has to die with the way they built him up and fleshed him out into these dark places. And the Bobby as a vengeful ghost is tied to the flask - their alcoholism - that Dean carries with him until the end of the season…

I mean I am extremely fond of Bobby, but with these metaphors I can actually kind of see how season 8 is a happier season just not to have him in it? He becomes very representative of all their problems… I think it spirals with the loss of the house, and Bobby being de-homed is his first step towards his existence as a ghost… 

* * *

Interrupting Moose picks some pretty good time to come back… And we get the heroes seeing Dick for the first time and Bobby helpfully montages us the press footage of The Rise of Dick.

Honestly this season

* * *

I’m laughing because Dick rose up as a motivational speaker as well as a CEO, so either the Leviathan put in all that work, or Godstiel missed one - the most important one.

When Dean and Sam were raising their eyebrows about Godstiel’s choice to kill them all, they really didn’t know…

* * *

> DEAN:  
> Now it’s all making sense. Remember when Crowley kept going on about hating Dick? I thought he was just being general. Pfft! 

This is possibly one of the underrated best Dick jokes, if only for the ever bizarre intrusion of Drowley undertones that this now has delivered to it from the future with unexpected Dean talking dismissively about if Crowley likes dick or not…

* * *

*staring into the heavens asking why Drowley had to happen*

* * *

Whyyy are the leviathan showing eye surgery to their meat zombies?

I mean I get why because that would be the ultimate way to prove *I* was a zombie if I kept casually eating while watching something like that but really, do we NEED to see the video footage on screen? :P

* * *

I like how Dick and his assistant tag team to pick on Dr Sexy for his failed experiments… they have a little evil routine worked out :’)

We are never, ever going to ask how Bibbing works, except that it is the perfect metaphor for the leviathan’s all-devouring and self-devouring hunger

honestly this season has such anxiety with hunger and food

* * *

“Now I have officially seen it all” Oh dear. :P Not good phrases to say when you are in your last episode among the living

* * *

> BOBBY:  
> What do you got there?
> 
> DICK ROMAN takes a gun out of the box from Sotheby’s.
> 
> DICK ROMAN:  
> Winning bid at auction. Beautiful. Known for their peerless sighting. I imagine you appreciate guns.
> 
> BOBBY:  
> I’d appreciate one right about now.
> 
> DICK ROMAN loads the gun with bullets from the case.
> 
> DICK ROMAN:  
> Ooh-hoo-hoo-hoo. But I mean the machine, the idea. Just one of your species’ most inspired inventions. I mean it. I really think you guys have spunk. You’re like a planet of just the cutest little engines that could. But… Like the late, great, actual Dick Roman used to say to the whores he’d kick out of the presidential suite… “cute don’t quite hack it, sugar.”

Dick’s actual downfall comes from this precise thing: he admires human achievement while sort of revelling in the random things that can get made for him: he uses the human structures of power to achieve his goals, even actually using real!Dick’s money to win human auctions for human items he’s interested in. But he still doesn’t understand it or that “spunk” or “spark” and so he relies on SOME human influence in his plans, and of course that human influence we see is Charlie, who takes him down from the inside using entirely pre-existing human software and “powers” that he doesn’t have… it’s thanks to her that they ever get a chance to fight back at him, and there’s the very similar conversation he has with her about her “spark” and not being able to replicate it that sets him up for his fall in much more obvious ways…

(I will admit in all my years of illegally watching this show this scene has always been blacked out for some reason no matter where I illegally obtained this episode, so I’ve never seen it? Not like my no. 1 motivation to get the DVDs (getting rid of the guilt of years of piracy ranks up there :P) but a great thing to see a new thing on this show! :P I am delighted by this exchange and finally getting to watch it! It builds up Dick’s whole rise and fall in a way that puts it right across the season with much more depth to his character…)

(Also I just got to watch new dialogue written by Edlund I’d never heard before :3)

* * *

I hate how Dick seems to move without, like… moving his legs. He literally seems to move via oozing.

* * *

Me right now:

> SAM:  
> Bobby? Oh, God. Bobby? Bobby?
> 
> DEAN:  
> Bobby?!


	10. 7x10

Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

* * *

Bobby is so quick to realise he’s in a coma 

I suppose perks of the job - if something seems weird, follow the instinct on it

* * *

… I’m sure it wasn’t intentional the entire time but it just occurred to me after all that harping about the top floor of Bobby’s house, the memory with Karen is the one time we ever see it

This memory was locked at the top of the house the entire time we’ve known Bobby and here it is…

(I know it’s casually implied some characters go up and down the stairs at times, but for the sake of melodrama this is significant and making use of their pre-existing Bobby stuff with an excellent amount of storytelling power they may not have totally realised they had? :P)

* * *

RUFUS <3

Gonna see you again in a couple of days :3

* * *

All the stuff in Bobby’s head is just such great horror movie stuff - him being haunted by a scary blood-splattered kid (HIMSELF)… the uncertain scene transitions, the smashed milk glass haunting him, the lights all turning off and moving towards him…

I like that Bobby’s reaper is bearded. I know Tessa said they sort of customise themselves to their “reapee” (as Bobby just called himself) but it amuses me to think about the Bobby Wing in Heaven, and this bearded reaper being the one in charge of seeing them all there…

* * *

And then after all that drama, Bobby literally ducks his reaper the first time… by running away *shot of him in the distance jogging across the church for just long enough it becomes absurd*

I SHOULDN’T LAUGH

my soul hurts I need the humour of that moment :P

* * *

> REAPER:  
> I can find you anywhere! Even in this gin-soaked rat maze. 

:(

I mean the whole point of showing Bobby’s memories as a horror story is that they ARE, and he acknowledges himself how messed up they are… I think this is one of those really good episodes which actually leans into the show’s (original) genre… There’s not so much of it these days

Of course the first time we went in Bobby’s head was Dream a Little Dream where again it was just a full on screaming ghost horror movie - this is more complex but the whole point is going deeper…

I suppose showing us unexplored spaces like the top floor of Bobby’s house - and the reason we never went up there before - is all a part of that

* * *

*wails at the Sam and Dean movie argument*

> DEAN:  
> And when the crap hits the fan, it’s not about who has skill. It’s about who’s the bigger badass. Bobby!

this is totally framed to look like Dean says Bobby is so I am choosing to believe Bobby would win this stupid fight or at least that he has Dean’s vote :P

* * *

I am pretty sure that Bobby’s mom is wearing really similar clothes to zombie!Karen

Superficially, anyway ([x](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.homeofthenutty.com%2Fsupernatural%2Fscreencaps%2Fdisplayimage.php%3Falbum%3D97%26pid%3D44100%23top_display_media&t=MGZlYjc1Y2MwOTY0ODExNDMyNTk0OTlhNDc5OTkxMGRmMjA3OTA2NyxGVG94Y0trbg%3D%3D&b=t%3AEoTmUHpiEEiE91JGAXVv3Q&p=https%3A%2F%2Felizabethrobertajones.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F141493523098%2F7x10-rewatch&m=1) [x](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.homeofthenutty.com%2Fsupernatural%2Fscreencaps%2Fdisplayimage.php%3Falbum%3D143%26pid%3D138437%23top_display_media&t=MDZmMzY5OWY4YTYxM2M0M2M0NjRmMDczNTQwZDkyMTczNDNhMjBlYyxGVG94Y0trbg%3D%3D&b=t%3AEoTmUHpiEEiE91JGAXVv3Q&p=https%3A%2F%2Felizabethrobertajones.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F141493523098%2F7x10-rewatch&m=1))

  


* * *

Ugh the hospital stuff where Dean has that LONG sad look. I was too busy squishing a large alligator but in the opening when Dean is like “is he dead?! is he dead?!” while they’re driving is a reminder Dean already thought Bobby was dead once this season, and now Dean is going to have to try to cope with the thing that ALREADY this season nearly sent him over the edge.

Sam is leaning on the wall breathing heavily and I can’t remember the exact order of episodes but does he spiral back down into his Lucifer visions after this as well? Obviously it’s soon because we’re not TOO far from all that blowing up now that we’re past the midseason mark

* * *

Honestly Cas getting his memory back is like that meme with the gif of Troy from Community coming back in with pizza when everyone has been shot or is on fire at the start of the Darkest Timeline :P “I was gone for three quarters of a season and Bobby’s dead and Sam’s dying and you don’t have the car?? I can’t leave you alone for 10 minutes!”

 

(I joke about that but Cas was deliberately omitted from 11x09 as far as I can tell just because none of the shit that went down would have gone down if Cas had been there, and now look where we are)

* * *

> BOBBY:  
> Yeah, you! You, kid! Hey, what are you making like a white rabbit all over the place for, you grubby little – enough with the jump scares, kid. Who are you running from? 

I find it so funny that young!Bobby is wearing a cap too just because it’s like his defining character trait :P

* * *

I am Coping With Grief here - you can tell by how often I say the episode is funny when it really really isn’t 

* * *

> RUFUS:  
> No, deep like… Crap you do not want to think about, so you bury it, you shove other crap over it, and you don’t go there, ever.

I worry about this ever happening to Dean :P

* * *

Always amused by Bobby taking Rufus with him… I’m sure Rufus is probably just meant to be a hyper realistic figment of Bobby’s imagination and someone he knows so well he can give him all this back and forth dialogue but after 10x20 I am pretty sold on the “soulmate dropping by to say hello” theory

* * *

Another smashed glass on the floor in Bobby’s second worst memory… Makes you wonder if that kind of triggered him so he mishandled the argument with Karen SO badly

* * *

Ah man now I’m crying 

* * *

THIS ONE EPISODE

I NEVER CRY AT THIS SHOW AND THIS EPISODE GET ME EVERY TIME

* * *

> KAREN:  
> You’re a good man. You’d be a good dad. What does that even mean, you break everything you touch?! What kind of excuse is that?! 

I am too emotionally compromised to remember if that’s something Dean’s literally ever said but definitely he thinks it and it comes up in instances like 9x10 

* * *

Thinking of… Look at Dean! He’s so smol

*sniffles*

This episode is of course the final retcon along the way where Bobby finally officially seems to supplant John through their entire history (which recasts season one far more in a sense of obligation to John vs family love that motivate Dean, and undermines his desire to get the family back together as even MORE hollow in hindsight of all this contrasting Bobby and John - imagine going back to watch Bobby’s intro right after this episode and thinking about how he showed up offering them unconditional help with the demon problem and saving John after ALL THIS BACKSTORY. I tried not to make my notes about season 1 too biased by later canon because this wasn’t the story they were telling then, but it seems so sad when you know how Bobby ended up SO important and was retconned back that way and because of his fight with John, Sam and Dean don’t go to who was their most positive emotional figure until right at the end of the season?

Getting it through this filter shows us that Bobby apparently was unequivocally the “better” emotional father figure for Dean  - it’s not like this was never hinted at before but they’re making an actual episode about fatherhood and Bobby’s issues with it and though that exploration we see HIS issues vindicated through his relationship with Sam and Dean (and especially Dean with this little flashback) which was something that’s been bubbling under Gamble era the whole time (”Bobby-John” the baby in 6x02; Bobby telling Dean he’s his favourite in 6x06, for starters) 

… But of course we get the story now that Bobby feels responsible for Sam and Dean in a deep way, that the “like his own kids” thing is not just a casual affection towards them where he’s just saying that as it’s the best summary of how they relate to each other, but that they’ve struck him DEEP in the core and belong in this arc that goes through all Bobby’s most painful things in his life with them as the positive resolution - I don’t think he maybe even realises until he has a “this is your life” and puts it all together and gets the chance to yell at his own father… He gets that extra time to put together the missing pieces of his life/characterisation/whatever way you’re looking at it 

* * *

Does also make me think with the Dean and Bobby parallels what does it say about John when we look at Bobby’s father

* * *

> DEAN:   
> Why are you talking to me like he’s gonna die, huh? I do my job! Do your jobs! Save him! 

:( :(

Dean struggling with the fact there is no good karma for saving people, not when it comes to random life and death

Dean struggling with how he can save all these random people - save everyone in the universe sometimes - and when it comes to Bobby he’s completely helpless

* * *

Also Dean tried to hunt Tessa in 2x01 and Bobby is now doing something to hunt his own reaper here… Like father like son :’) Remember the “lol of course Dean is on a hunt even while he’s in a coma!” of that episode.

Aww man I’m making myself SADDER

* * *

HUH I forgot Dick was in this episode

and Dean just… goes up to talk to him

Wow

he is BEYOND caring

Dick’s creepy lizard man smile is the best thing about the character

> DEAN:   
> You’re either laughing because you’re scared or you’re laughing because you’re stupid. I’ll see you soon, Dick. 

Turns out it’s stupid! 

The monsters introduced as the “MENSA monster” in Bobby’s words have such an intriguing downfall

* * *

I know Dean challenging Dick to eat him then and there in the parking lot and become a viral internet star was one thing, but Dean maybe doesn’t realise he may have gone internet famous as “crazy guy yells at Dick Roman in hospital car park” since Dick couldn’t retaliate without blowing his cover

* * *

It’s always intrigued me that the spell stuff in Bobby’s head is strong enough to capture the reaper - almost like coming into Bobby’s “custard” puts Bobby at the advantage as the home team and the rules are defined by him. If he wants to cast a spell in his own head then he casts the damn spell

* * *

Dean’s hogged the drama spotlight here so far but then Sam goes and says like the worst thing ever:

> SAM:   
> Dean, listen – we need to brace ourselves.
> 
> DEAN:   
> Why?
> 
> SAM:   
> Because it’s real.

and now I feel awful about him standing there listening to all that bad news and checking constantly that this was really happening, because it’s as bad as any torture except WORSE because he’s certain it’s real life

* * *

*takes a break to eat an entire large chocolate rabbit*

Okay no it was just the last chunk of it I am being melodramatic :P

* * *

Oh god Sam steeples his hands like he’s praying but then just does the hand squish is-this-real check

* * *

Oh Bobby and rapidly disappearing house :( :(

* * *

> BOBBY (on phone):   
> No, we didn’t shoot rifles, as a matter of fact. We threw a ball around.
> 
> He’s a kid, John. They both are. They’re entitled.
> 
> Yeah, I know I ain’t their dad.
> 
> YOUNGER BOBBY hangs up and throws the phone down.

I’m crying again :(

I remembered the post about if that was maybe the root of their argument 

Blaaaaah

> REAPER:   
> Bobby… You’ve helped. You got handed a small, unremarkable life, and you did something with it. Most men like you die of liver disease, watching “Barney Miller” reruns. You’ve done enough. Believe me.
> 
> BOBBY:   
> I don’t care.
> 
> REAPER:   
> Why?
> 
> BOBBY:   
> Because they’re my boys.

:( :( 

> BOBBY:   
> I was a kid! Kids ain’t supposed to be grateful! They’re supposed to eat your food and break your heart, you selfish dick! You died, and I was still so afraid I’d turn into you I never even had kids of my own.
> 
> BOBBY’S FATHER:   
> Good. You break everything you touch.
> 
> BOBBY:   
> Uh-huh. Well, as fate would have it, I adopted two boys, and they grew up great. They grew up heroes. So you can go to hell!

:( :( :( :( :(

(This makes me so glad that Karen had that really nice conversation with Dean and got to meet him and Sam?)

Of course swings and roundabouts - this whole Bobby arc turns really dark with him going vengeful & is tied to Dean’s poor mental state and so Dean has to let him go, so this whole killing the father thing that Bobby does here, is metaphoric for his OWN influence on Dean. YES he did adopt them and love them and helped them grow up heroes blah blah but there’s a darker side to it we’re seeing through the season - all those times in the end of season 6 and open of 7 where every problem was met by handing Dean a drink for example

* * *

> YOUNG BOBBY is standing in the doorway with a rifle. As his parents watch, he cocks the rifle. BOBBY’S FATHER laughs.
> 
> BOBBY’S FATHER:   
> You’re kidding, right? You’re not half enough man to use that thing.

that’s very similar to the rifle Bobby was using in the woods last episode when he made that incredible shot that knocked the food zombie out of the tree >.>

* * *

> BOBBY walks over to YOUNG BOBBY.
> 
> BOBBY:   
> You did what you had to do.

Hey! Is that the first time it’s said? At least in SUCH dramatic memorable circumstances?

That’s the catchphrase of season 9 >.>

* * *

 _Idjits_.

*ugly sobs through the rest*

> REAPER:   
> This is your last chance to come with me and move on. For your own good, Bobby, let go. They’ll be okay without you. 

That “they’ll be okay without you” has the more ominous undertone of how Bobby haunting them could make things actively worse…

On the other hand he does actually help them for several episodes especially like flinging Cas back into their lives… but then it turns dark and he becomes something they NEED to get rid of 

but yeah, the implication of him as a MALIGN presence on their lives is the LAST thing he’d want and this episode makes it very clear just how much of a tragedy that he is? Metaphorically or not?

* * *

//this and 7x09 not edited for typos or coherency.. I’m gonna go wash my glasses :P


	11. 7x11

Or: I honestly don’t remember much about this episode except that Krissy is deservedly remembered in fandom as being awesome 

… I hope she’s doing okay out there

* * *

The Road So Far has a lot of beheading in it and now I’m confused about the stat that I heard somewhere that season 8 had the most beheadings because the mytharc monster of THIS season requires decapitations to make it stay down for a bit

Was Dean just REALLY efficient in Purgatory or was this a LIE shifting season 7′s glory onto the palatable 8? CONSPIRACY :P

* * *

Uh anyway

* * *

It did also recap us Cas’s death! I don’t really remember from this point on much/any Cas references before his return aside from that really obvious parallel in the Edlund episode, but I may be blanking on something subtextual

* * *

In any case this hunter getting himself caught by monsters is scruffy and in a leather jacket so I’m assuming John Winchester parallel for Krissy’s origin story.

* * *

One of the trucks at the truck stop I swear is the same branding as the courier service from 6x18

Continuity nods!

The show’s own branding really is coming into its own :P 

* * *

We go to Sam and Dean on “Week One” - Dean is hogging the Sofa of Tragedy’s Ugly Cousin (where he spent his 3 weeks mourning Cas) but SAM is sitting on a hard wooden chair off to the side. I am sort of laughing in a very sad way because Sam sitting rigid in hard chairs is his own personal meltdown thing but it really can’t be comfy. Dean’s sofa-lurking misery is much  more my brand.

* * *

She types from where she has spent a week on the sofa

* * *

Sam spends week two looking at Bobby’s address book, but maybe/maybe not telling anyone he’s dead… Dean just fixates on the numbers, so we’re already seeing the divide in their coping mechanisms. I’d say Sam’s is the more “normal” picture of grief even if that is something personal to everyone, while Dean is going to go into a new unhealthy spiral fixating on revenge and finishing this job as per Bobby telling him to find a reason to exist every day

* * *

I can’t believe Dean willingly keeps images of Dick on the wall like come on he knows what he looks like

no need to subject yourself to needless creepiness

* * *

Uhoh, Sam is drinking El Sol

> SAM:   
> Dean, you know, um… I wonder if – if we… I mean, should we be telling people? I mean, people he knew.
> 
> DEAN:   
> How long ago did I give Frank these numbers? It’s been a few weeks, right? What, is he nuts, or is he just being rude?

Dean just plain isn’t listening to what Sam has to say re: the generic healthy approach to dealing with a death while buried in his revenge quest moodboarding… Subtle

* * *

Once Krissy actually phones, Sam can’t bear to say that Bobby is gone either, I think proving Dean’s point a bit about how hard it is

Meanwhile Dean silently notices, examines, and steals Bobby’s flask for himself

* * *

The Krissy vs Frank debate is a season 1 level argument of Saving People vs Revenge Quest - again, Sam took the revenge arc in season 1, so Dean gets to have a go here?

* * *

Also for Dean the first sign of Bobby’s presence around them is his beer disappearing - possibly why El Sol? Since this isn’t what it seems even if they’re not sure what it is… Sam and Dean argue about how either Sam drank it all or Dean did without remembering - in itself a bad sign for his alcoholism but also linking Dean and Bobby through a drink, as Dean will take up Bobby’s drinking more literally with using his flask.

* * *

Hi Krissy!

She looks tiny even though she only appears in season 8 which is one year later

…

to be fair

I am saying this on a scene when she is interacting with Sam

* * *

> SAM:   
> How long has it been?
> 
> KRISSY:   
> Five days.
> 
> SAM:   
> It’s just you and him, huh? I know how that is.

Always time for references to their depressing childhood! \o/

also another reference to Sam being left completely alone?

I remember after 11x08 some wank about how Sam had never been abandoned and that was ooc to suggest he was alone a lot but I’m pretty sure he implied in the antichrist episode the same thing

…

Sam meeting kids is basically Sam immediately telling them depressing things about himself

* * *

I think Dean and Frank just became blood brothers

*so unsanitary omg* For a paranoid bastard Frank sure is trusting that Dean didn’t just give him any diseases or that his sleeve was… sterilised?

* * *

Their angry-flirting interactions are amazing

I don’t think there’s anything there but the chemistry on screen is so good to watch I literally forgot to note anything down until I had to pause to laugh out the dramatic reveal of

> FRANK:   
> Never had to go past six, because this… my little lamb, is coordinates.
> 
> DEAN:   
> You sure? To what?
> 
> FRANK:   
> A field in Wisconsin.

*dun dun DUN*

* * *

> FRANK:   
> Their tentacles are everywhere. I-I’m looking at bankers, military high-ups… 

After so much effort the show has… tentacle adjacent  monsters

they gave up after this attempt :P

* * *

> FRANK:   
> Hey, cut me some slack. You called me like four days ago.
> 
> DEAN:   
> I called you four  _weeks_  ago, Frank.
> 
> FRANK:   
> What? No. Really? Days, weeks – quit busting my chops.

Was there a time stamp since week two?? Oh, I don’t know. 

Time is passing and it’s screwy. I bet Dean has no better idea of how much time has REALLY passed than Frank, just he’s confused in another direction >.>

* * *

> DEAN:   
> No. No, no, no. I’m not gonna play “this one time with Bobby” crap, all right? I’m not gonna get all warm and fuzzy with somebody else who barely knew him.
> 
> FRANK:   
> Just trying to make friendly conversation.
> 
> DEAN:   
> This is not a friendship, Frank. I’m paying you!

Dean is so great at loss… >.> Here he is getting possessive as if only his relationship to Bobby mattered - something they deal with again with Garth later

I do wonder about Dean and Cas though because Sam or Bobby never made this whole show of mourning Cas in the same way Dean did - it being treated like a loss falls entirely on Dean in the narrative, and in a way Dean never has to compete with sole “ownership” of Cas because he’s got it. Probably Sam and Bobby are plenty sad (Sam forgave Cas before the dust was even settling) but again they respect that Dean n Cas was something else - something between them that they were not privy to in the same way… Bobby, though, was a widely networked guy and even between Sam and Dean shared a similar bond. Dean is okay with Sam mourning him - for the most part, even though he was snappy with Sam about what they should do - but this possessiveness with Frank and then later Garth shows much stronger this trait of his

(He and Sam clashed over the memory of BOTH their parents at various times as well, although I can’t remember the exact nature right now)

* * *

So many of the morgue scenes show the camera looking up at them from an approximation of the dead person’s POV… it kind of gets creepy :P

* * *

> SAM:   
> So, what? Some kind of animal attack?
> 
> MORGUE ATTENDANT:   
> Or a vampire.
> 
> SAM looks at the MORGUE ATTENDANT without smiling.
> 
> MORGUE ATTENDANT:   
> Huh. That… usually gets at least a chuckle.

Once again, here’s me wondering how many monster/vampire attacks get to morgues and are never explained, so in this world this type of death is a very common animal attack thing and an accepted part of the world? This guy has probably literally made vampire jokes about actual vampire kills and never known. 

* * *

> DEAN (on phone):   
> Relax. It’s a field, not the Death Star. Dick’s at a TED Conference. It’s all over The Huffington Post.
> 
> SAM (on phone):   
> Wait, wait, wait. Since when do you read?
> 
> DEAN (on phone):   
> Know your enemy, Sam.

Oi. >.>

I hope that was not a “since when do you read the HuffPo?” joke that got made even meaner by actor meddling

* * *

*stares long and hard at 9x04*

*remembers that Robbie fixed that in 11x04 because of course he did*

* * *

Dean falls asleep instantly after possibly not sleeping for weeks, and misses an important call from Sam where he could have told him not to be an idiot about hunting Vetalas alone… Both Winchesters are fucked up with their sleep and this time we’re seeing it about Dean, but of course it ends up plot important on a much bigger scale when to focus is on Sam and his problems with sleep.

I should probably go re-read whatever I wrote in 1x03 or 1x04 about this before I hit up 7x16

* * *

> DEAN:   
> Yes. Maybe because somebody I cared about just got shot in the head. And this is like shoving a rock up a hill. And – screw you. 

Dean makes a classical reference before backing out and turning it into a screw you, which makes up for the Dean reading commented as that was an unprompted reference :3

* * *

The Leviathan they see on screen surveying the field is wearing a trenchcoat, as part of the long series of Ladies In Trenchcoats who pop up on the show

She also has dark hair although not sure about eye colour

Frank also objectifies her and Dean tells him to quit it with the porno stuff and honestly this is weirdly refreshing :P

* * *

Anyway then Frank gives Dean his horrifically depressing fake it until you make it advice and parallels Dean’s situation to how Frank lost his wife and kids

* * *

this is interrupted by Dean getting a series of phone messages that make him panic he’s lost Sam - he’s already lost his spouse, and father figure. Not losing the kids next >.>

* * *

Krissy’s dad is wearing a red-tinted leather jacket which if he’s a John parallel makes me kind of depressed about Dean’s red leather jacket

booo, don’t ruin this for me, show… we haven’t even seen it yet

* * *

Dean is so done he doesn’t bother fighting Krissy to make her back off so he can snoop in private, so despite sort of doing exactly what Sam did, his weariness actually pays off that he doesn’t treat Krissy like an idiot, even if he IS treating her like a kid, and there’s a difference she clearly understands - Dean is good at speaking to kids like people

* * *

She actually does look a LOT like Ben

* * *

> KRISSY:   
> What serious crap?
> 
> DEAN:   
> Revenge crap, all right? Now shut up. Eat a cookie or something.

Aw Deeean :(

* * *

> DEAN:   
> Because they had the wrong info. Or, best available. Our dad took down a loner years ago. Sam has his journal. Your dad must’ve been going on the same facts. 

Whooops… Always atoning for the mistakes of the father blah blah… In this case John Winchester is busy accidentally causing strife from waaay beyond the grave. Apparently he’s the expert or these are rare enough his one hunt was the only info in the community… 

Which takes me back to like, 2x03, and my long rant about why Sam and Dean were excluded from the community, as Dean cites the fact he hunted his pair of Vetalas while Sam was at college. Since Dean was going it alone and through John’s work accidentally or deliberately or because he’d fallen out with everyone, Dean was kept away from all meaningful parts of the hunting community -  _even Bobby_  who by now is thoroughly retconned as their Other Dad and since this is making pre-series references with all that info, they know what they’re implying a bit better than 2x03 might have as more and more backstory was uncovered after it.

So the fact this info never made it past Dean says a LOT more than 2x03 even did about their isolation from the hunting community, when we have it directly contrasted to how John’s bad info made it to Krissy’s dad, whether they ever knew each other or not

* * *

Anyway he accidentally sparks something by mentioning that Sam went to college (briefly, without explaining he had to leave) and gives Krissy a hope of a normal-ish hybrid life… the same thing Dean already rejected and just 2 episodes ago Bobby was telling him he couldn’t have

I think Dean might be thinking it’s too late for him but she’s still relatively untouched by it all even knowing about the life… And it’s great that HE engages her on the subject as much as she shows interest, since it’s not just her ideallistically asking if that’s a thing, but he is the one telling her first that it could be.

So again, rejecting the dark influence of a father figure in SOME ways - Dean hasn’t internalised what Bobby told him at least so far as it can apply to other people. For HIMSELF maybe he needs to cling onto that “you’re not a person” thing (which is horrendous combined with Frank’s advice) but his larger world view is not so tainted that he won’t pass on the worst advice to those who still have even half a chance of “being people”

* * *

Sam baits the Vetala to bite him instead

> SAM:   
> Hey, Sally, uh, did I tell you about the Vetalas I took down in Utah? Yeah. You remind me of them. Except they were so much…younger.
> 
> SAM:   
> I tied ‘em up. Not because I had to. More so… I could take my time.
> 
> SALLY:   
> You’re lying.
> 
> SAM:   
> No. I just want you to know how much I enjoyed cutting up your sisters.

And I do wonder how much of that Lucifer told him to say >.>

It’s pretty vicious

Like, Sam has a hella dark streak

but that is SCARY and unexpected

* * *

I may be really tired at this point so I don’t have much to say about Dean and Krissy interacting but I love it. She gives him so much crap and while he’s not wrong to be concerned for her, she’s actually making it hard for him to say she’s useless even now, because she’s the one who realises they can follow the truck to find where the monsters are holed up, and their back and forth dialogue she knows her own mind and the world surprisingly well - revealing a wise beyond her years thing with having seen her mother get killed by monsters, which just makes her another Winchester parallel to have lost her mother that way

* * *

Honestly has Dean even BEEN in a proper fight with a monster this season?? Maybe, but he’s had his butt kicked a lot too.

* * *

This is no exception, they totally seem to have lost the fight until Krissy turns it all around after playing into the expectations that she’s weak and useless

(I really cheer for her in this episode :D)

* * *

> LEE:   
> You know, I got into this for a reason.
> 
> DEAN:   
> I know. Your family. That’s the same reason you should get out now.
> 
> LEE:   
> I can’t. You ever know anyone who left the life?
> 
> DEAN:   
> No. They all get killed first.

This is a WILDLY depressing exchange especially as we’ve been reminded a few minutes ago that Sam tried to get out and Dean had his whole brush with normality last season in recent painful memory. And then he was joking the last time he talked properly to Bobby about him retiring…

He keeps it off the record that attempts at retirement tend not to stick

…

this is even more depressing with the next Krissy episode in mind where this tentative retirement for her is undone, and even if she has a better balance of the life and normality and a support group of friends, they go through SO much extra needless pain to get there >.>

* * *

Sam leaves Dean and Krissy some space to talk - he always can tell when someone bonded with Dean more than him, even when it’s Dean adopting many smol children

* * *

> DEAN:   
> How about you? How you doing? You all right?
> 
> SAM:   
> No. I’m definitely not. But, you know, I mean, um, I think, maybe… I just want to work.
> 
> DEAN nods.
> 
> SAM:   
> Should I even ask?
> 
> DEAN:   
> I’m fine.
> 
> SAM:   
> “Fine,” meaning…?
> 
> DEAN:   
> You’re right. We should just… work, right?

UGH, WINCHESTERS

I guess Sam owns to it (and then promptly gives up and tries sleeping in the car)

but Dean really goes for that denial, and tries Frank’s smile advice, and gives us literally the most heartbreaking series of facial expressions he ever uses (at least when not thinking about Cas, those tears from 11x14 are still haunting me :P) 

* * *

Hang on, the gifset of the deleted scene says that Sam’s finding the random photo in the trunk because it was in the trenchcoat but all that tan fabric in there is just their bags, and you can see the trenchcoat bundled up under all the guns IN one of the bags - the picture of him and Dean was just loose in there, so this is nothing to do with Cas

and everything to do with how they apparently just throw their suit jackets all crumpled up into the back of the car

I am now confused, was this Bobby’s car? When is this moment? I don’t even understand where it fits… Or HOW it fits

I can see why it was deleted :P

Although playing “spot the trenchcoat” is always fun since I think it’s only spotted 2-3 times


	12. 7x12

Or: welcome to the latest instalment of The Worst Timed Rewatch!

Quite ironic that it’s the cause of time travel episodes

And Robbie sent angst back in time to this episode via a message in a bottle

* * *

The recap is entirely just to tell us that Bobby is dead and the Leviathans did it. This episode doesn’t do much for the main plot except for more coping with grief, and the prophecy that they’re going to get murdered by Leviathan, which seems pretty vague until you realise that the title card is literal and he’s actually describing to Sam the last moment we see him in season 7 in vivid awful detail.

(I remain impressed with season 7 for accidentally being one of the best told seasons. I think part of it is the “keep it simple, stupid,” rule which is totally missing in season 6, but means basic foreshadowing like this could have meant anything but was easy to apply in the end, and Cas’s return wove very neatly into the last episode whether they’d expected him to be there or not at the start of the season)

* * *

~~Honestly who even does time travel fuckery as their second ever episode?~~

*points at this written the day before yesterday, and then points angrily at 11x16* 

fucker was just getting warmed up

* * *

Robbie is also responsible for what I think are 2/3rds of Jody’s appearances this season as well as introducing Charlie, so he’s like a one man crusade against this sausagefest of a season. I think aside from Meg and Dick’ assistant that’s it for notable female characters who aren’t a one off or have plot impact? (Like, obvs the last episode I watched was Krissy so I can’t say the season is bereft of female characters or even, in that episode’s case, the episode ending up her story… but we’re talking main plot or recurring here) 

IDK Jody is the start of this episode to get them on the road, and then shows up to bounce off Sam - like with her intruding on Bobby in 7x06 her presence isn’t called for (in the sense that later Jody episodes show up on her home turf so it’s necessarily a story built around her) but she IS welcome, and it’s kind of sad Jody doesn’t show up more, or is used this way more often, especially considering she has to keep reminding Sam and Dean they can come talk to her if they need it and they don’t seem to take her up on it… 

In this case she’s linked to Sam from the start as she phones his phone and wakes him up and Sam has an adorably awkward conversation with her. Dean’s off reading about Dick, and Sam was sleeping, which also shows in a few moments where they’re at: Dean on his revenge bent, Sam ENDED last episode curling up and trying to sleep in the car, so sleep and Sam are already subtly becoming a thing

And Jody is starting her arc that leads her from being a sheriff in the know to an actual hunter - she may even have been motivated BY Bobby’s death, since she wasn’t showing signs of becoming a hunter yet last time we saw her, but now she’s driving from Sioux Falls to Ohio to nose into a mystery mummification case, even if she does then pass it onto the “proper authorities” as she would see them rather than nosing into it herself without back up

(I think as a cop she probably has the best understanding of when to call for back up :P)

Sam calls Dean out for the first time about his unhealthy obsession with Dick, I assume kicking himself he didn’t make an innuendo to imply Dean was into Dick, but thankfully for Sam, this is a world of opportunity

* * *

Do Sam and Dean have a rental car this episode? Lol… Dean’s hatred of plastic cars in early season 6. Them being a sign of soulless!Sam…

* * *

Oh for FUCK’S SAKE THEY’RE DOING ROCK PAPER SCISSORS

I mean they’re even in a derelict house? Sam wins and gets the “unrancid” bedroom, Dean clearly gets a gross one if he’d stuck around, and there we have the parallel to 11x16 if we take this house as the “nest” and Sam winning to stay on the “good” side of the house…

except Dean then ends up in the past so he ends up in a different version of this house through time, if not space, and secures his freedom from it via writing on the wall…

I’m calling foul, Robbie.

* * *

(okay no, OBVIOUSLY 11x16 was a lesson on parallels and this episode was directly referenced by it, and both of Robbie’s time travel episodes revolve around/contain an old house that’s superficially similar… It was literally an episode about do-overs. In this case obviously the anxiety is just about Dean getting stuck in the past rather than the much deeper anxiety about his soul… It does over this episode on a much more chilling premise, while using some of the same basic pattern…)

* * *

I know this is a season with a cold winter in the middle of it since we see snow at some point soon, and so coats are necessary but  _really_  putting Sam and Dean in the long coats right before sending Dean off to get dolled up some MORE?

* * *

Aaaand Sam strikes!

The context was not remotely suggestive that Dean was going to look at anime OR Dick - he was actually trying to help with the case.

Sam is just delighted he got in his sick burn about Dean being into Dick only a day or two after he first blew an opportunity to make it.

Listen Sam I know you are doing the universe a favour here but that was incredibly lame, you dork <3

I am crediting Dean’s unamused look with being at least 80% knowing that Sam took a whole day to come up with his snappy one liner

* * *

Like he doesn’t even care about the implication he’s just feeling sorry for Sam

* * *

Ooh bonus Gas n Sip reference. They seem to have become the default gas station by now even if they don’t become plot important until season 9

* * *

Aww no they were eating junk food in their rental car and left it littered with wrappers

they eat a LOT of junk food this season - I guess they didn’t learn from 7x09 :P I mean not like we ever see them eat anything healthy unless it’s a plot point, but considering this season ends up plot important about the junk food and has already teased it, I think we are seeing more on-screen eating or at least buying of junk food than we would normally?

* * *

I love the way Ness is introduced - there’s one of those caged halo lights in the interrogation room, and with the steps down to it we’re shown Dean not being able to see past the light to see who it is. From the waist down it’s a guy in a long coat, and actually Cas kind of mirrors this character introduction in 9x21 with the dramatic walking in on an interrogation… In this case Ness weirdly looks like Cas just with the coat visible, and the light strongly associated with Cas obscuring his face.

ALSO the whole image of the guy’s entire upper torso and face being consumed by one of these halos - Dean hasn’t entirely learned from 6x18 about the past being more complicated than the movies, and Robbie’s only other episode so far has covered the “applications for sainthood” analysis of Dean’s relationships: being blinded by Ness’s reputation and Dean’s full on hero worship of him plays a part here.

So in one go we have him set up as a Cas mirror, and to say a huge amount about that relationship AND how Dean will be relating to Ness before we know who it is, as this sort of build up to a reveal is obviously emphasising that he will be a dramatic reveal in the first place.

* * *

(HONESTLY IT IS A CRIME HOW LONG ROBBIE WENT WITHOUT WRITING CAS - SOMETIMES I LOOK AT HIS WRITING CREDITS AND SOB)

* * *

Aw Dean’s rabbit in headlights fangirl mode activated :’)

To be fair, Ness seems pretty impressed with him too, perhaps just because wow a time traveller but Dean does seem somewhat competent once he stops being snarky about being a time traveller :P

* * *

Somehow it’s much funnier when we go from “strictly into Dick” to Dean fangirling over Ness to Dean liking what he sees with the guy in uniform

a long series of unconnected events

* * *

Plus the whole thing with Sam being paired with Jody for the episode because of *course* it’s one of those where Dean is paired with a dude at the same time and those are their “teams” for the episode

* * *

I stopped mid-sentence to watch slack-jawed with Dean’s clothing montage whoops

* * *

Of course, to hop ahead to 11x16, Ezra being a blatant Bobby parallel is even funnier because it’s playing with having a version of him in the past, and that episode was all about narrative and character parallels.

(Also I assume from 10x17 she was up in the Surly wing of Heaven - they’ve played with this character type predetermination a lot :P)

And then since Ness doesn’t fit neatly in this parallel, you have Jody and Ezra being the ones who bounce off of Sam and Dean and help them work out who Chronos is in the same sort of back and forth layered lore discovery as with the Bobby & Rufus/Sam & Dean parallel from 11x16 - same basic use of storytelling there

* * *

Oh my god Dean try not to totally devour Ness with your eyes :P

* * *

> JODY MILLS:   
> So, how do we get Dean back? How do we even find this Chronos?
> 
> SAM:   
> Best stab? We find a way to summon a God.
> 
> _INT. TAILOR’S SHOP – DAY_
> 
> ELIOT NESS:   
> Look, let’s just stick with what we know. Ezra, see if you can find something in all this junk that will kill a God.
> 
> EZRA:   
> No trouble at all. Come in a few hours, see what I can scrounge up.

This episode also has an example of past and present working together to complete the hunt, but this time rather than a half completed hunt/temporary measures, the two sides come together to both have a half of the job they can do

worryingly, on Dean’s side, he’s all gung-ho to hunt Chronos but at the moment does not seem too worried about getting home after this exchange:

> DEAN:   
> All right, well, how the hell am I gonna ride him back to 2012?
> 
> EZRA:   
> Well, you could let him grab you, if you don’t mind him using you for gasoline.

which seems to take a ride home off the table, while Sam and Jody have that as their main motivation. Obviously Dean is put out by being back in time and logically would worry about how to get home at least a bit, but this is his really disconnected, depressed half of the season, even  _worse_  than the opening half, now he’s dealing with Bobby’s death on top of everything else… Bobby warned him to keep caring and find a reason to keep going, but as he discusses with Ness in a bit, he’s totally drifting when it comes to that, so him not having any burning motivation to get back to the future/save HIMSELF in all this makes sense that after that exchange seems to get rid of the obvious way to get Dean to the future again, he just goes along with talking about how to kill Chronos which would seem, without Sam and Jody’s side of things to give you any confidence, to write off how he gets himself home…

* * *

sorry this episode is very hard to comment on because Dean keeps being on screen in that coat that makes his shoulders go out to here and the hat angled over his face and where even am I right now?

* * *

Dean is enjoying getting to be the actual police for once, though…

* * *

I don’t think Ness likes his fictional movie counterpart very much - he keeps scowling at Dean when Dean gets too involved in play acting 

* * *

Unfortunately Dean took his coat off and it’s worse

* * *

> ELIOT NESS:   
> And I want to help you out. I do, but my partner here? He just got back from the war. And he’s spent the last two years kicking in Nazi skulls. If he doesn’t kick in a skull every couple days, he gets real touchy. 

Oooh dear casting Dean as someone with violent PTSD even in a fantasy. 

* * *

> JODY MILLS:   
> “Fine, you ass. You win for once. Enjoy. R.” Who’s “R”?
> 
> SAM:   
> Rufus, a family friend.
> 
> JODY MILLS:   
> Ah, right.
> 
> SAM:   
> Wonder what they were betting over?
> 
> JODY MILLS:   
> Well, whatever it was, Rufus sure was a sore loser.
> 
> SAM smiles.
> 
> SAM:   
> Yeah.
> 
> JODY MILLS:   
> It’s weird, huh? It’s like their life’s a big puzzle. You just keep finding pieces of it scattered all over the place. We should drink this. He’d want us to. Am I wrong?
> 
> SAM:   
> It’d be rude not to.

THE WHOLE CONTEXT IS MUCH WORSE JODY IS SO SAD

Sam, go hug her right now >:(

On the other hand, awww, we got the puzzle piece and Sam doesn’t even know it even now! He wasn’t even as sure as Dean was that Dean could have actually seen Bobby and just dismissed it as too much of a headache… Never mind they’d have no way of knowing that case was how they ended up with the bottle…

I know the important thing was just the backstory with the bottle like it could have come from any episode but it’s so beautiful it ALSO comes from a time travel episode and Jody and Sam are feeling kind of helpless about rescuing Dean from the past, and this bottle sort of ended up being as much about Rufus making Bobby feel better about saving Sam and Dean as it was admitting to being wrong about the type of monster… Blaaah

I’m assuming Robbie has been wanting to write his Bobby and Rufus episode ever since he did this with the intention of wrapping up the mystery, and of course just knowing that whatever happened in the episode, Rufus would lose a bet about it to Bobby, but it ended up being such a well-crafted thing?

I AM NOT OVER 11x16

* * *

Ness drinking out of a flask of course brings him down to a Bobby and or Dean parallel - considering he gives Dean “Boo hoo” ~advice~ that does also reinforce how Bobby’s last advice to Dean of “you’re not a person” wasn’t the most sensitive advice while mirroring the sentiment… He gets a whole lot of negative reinforcement which keeps pushing him on day by day as things that help with the whole method of repression as a coping tool, but eroding his self esteem or blocking his healing process in the mean time… This is a season when TOO much happens to Dean that he can’t just repress it and be fine. He can’t get a turn around on anything until Cas comes back.

And of course Ness says hunting sets him free and has an angst-free intro to it, while Dean’s path into it has been inevitable as he was raised a hunter: Ness is entirely aligned with the just saving people and hunting things side which has nothing to do with revenge or at least monster killing catharsis, just job satisfaction.

(Obviously Jody has an angsty intro to hunting, but Ness also works as a parallel for her and how she can get into it as a supplement to law enforcement - her season 9 onwards episodes all fall into the category of her just living her life, doing her job, and hunting monsters on the side where she has to. We’re 2 seasons away but this is the template for how Jody operates but obviously she’s a much more complicated character than Ness :P)

Anyway:

> DEAN:   
> I used to do it ‘cause that’s what my family did.
> 
> But they just seem to keep dying. To tell you the truth, I don’t know why I’m doing much of anything anymore.
> 
> ELIOT NESS:   
> Boo-hoo. Cry me a river, ya nancy. Tell me, are all hunters as soft as you in the future? Everybody loses everybody. And then one day, boom. Your number’s up, but at least you’re making a difference. So enjoy it while it lasts, kid, 'cause hunting’s the only clarity you’re gonna find in this life. And that makes you luckier than most.

Bobby’s advice focussed on Dean’s place in the universe, dehumanising hunters as a whole - himself included - and emphasizing that Dean had chosen his place in the universe to be in a truck full of guns with Bobby at that place in time… This rings with “hunting’s the only clarity you’re gonna find” although Bobby’s advice also told Dean to find a reason, while this just stomps right through Dean saying he can’t find that reason to just say “hunting is that reason” while Bobby was stepping around it to tell Dean to FIND the reason to hunt. Basically another step further, another step depersonalising the job and the hunters who do it…

… which of course rings with Dean coming out the other side of Purgatory saying it and the 360 degrees of combat all day long was pure. In a way he’s already beginning to be stripped down to someone who would need/appreciate the simplicity of that life. And of course Dean in Purgatory has been written about a lot in context of him as a “blunt little instrument” and so on going into his wider arcs as someone who is seen just as a weapon or an attack dog, which the season 9 side of the Mark of Cain arc was all about. So we’re seeing the early end of threads that drift off into demon!Dean here, for the long story of how Dean was broken down so far. (And of course that is a theme for Dean right from the start of the show, just building in intensity as it goes…)

* * *

Honestly that whole exchange has the sort of tension of 2 guys on stake out and one of them drinking from a flask thing of the siren episode, and Dean’s looking admiringly at him (even after saying he’ll never watch the movie again :P) but he never gets offered a drink.

I mean if we take the flask in THIS case as a proxy kiss (ignoring that Dean and Bobby have a whole thing with another flask this season - hey maybe he decides to start using Bobby’s because of this :P), you have Dean sitting in a car wishing he gets to share a drink with him but it’s not forthcoming.

* * *

> ELIOT NESS:   
> Well, everything’s coming up us, kid.
> 
> DEAN:   
> Talk to me.
> 
> ELIOT NESS:   
> I am.

There IS something Cas-like in the way Ness isn’t getting the references/modern slang/turns of phrase mostly because of the deadpan way he responds here. I wonder if it’s making Dean hurt a bit inside because he knows someone who would have said exactly the same thing >.>

* * *

> EZRA:   
> You stick this end in his heart. Miss, he has you for supper. Make sense?
> 
> DEAN:   
> Wait, if I – if I kill Chronos… I’m stuck here.
> 
> EZRA:   
> You just now realized? Oh, come on. 1944 ain’t so bad.

This is what I mean about Dean vs consequences :P Robbie knows not to write stupid Dean but he can write careless Dean

* * *

(I MEAN 9x11 is one of the best detective!Dean episodes in some ways and look what he does there >.>)

* * *

Hahaha I forgot Ezra, the Bobby parallel, kissed Dean

whoops, awkwaaard considering what I was just talking about a few comments up

What was it I said about Dean in the siren episode? “The woes of a bisexual time traveller haunted by edgy incest subtext”? :P LOOK WHO’S AT IT AGAIN

* * *

Aaah I forgot how young and scrawny Chronos looks

(I was emotionally scarred by some books of Greek myths as a kid so I generally think of this God as huge and terrifying :P) 

But like, he has a sweet kind of look to him which actually reminds me of their casting choice for Henry Winchester exactly one season down the line in another 12th episode with a title about time. :P Of course their stories are very different, but there’s also parallels - Henry’s wife had no idea that Henry was MoL or mixed it up with dangerous demons or anything. Chronos’s wife also thinks he’s a perfectly normal husband right now, and he’s protecting her from that. They also both die out of their time, even if Chronos’s time was one he had chosen and was managing to work his way back to every time he ended up hopping time again… Only Dean is the Abaddon to Chronos’s Henry, so if you’re applying the parallel from the position of 8x12 looking back, you have your first Dean/Abaddon parallel long before anything else happened.

Also I think Chronos intends to take his wife elsewhere in time to protect them from Ness/Dean.

* * *

Oooh man the second hand embarrassment of “Special Agent Costner with the Department of Homeland Termite Invasion.”

Dean, no.

And like I was saying, Robbie doesn’t write stupid Dean - this is extremely clever of him to go find the house and write a message he knows Sam will see.

* * *

> DEAN:   
> What?! Oh, yeah – no! No, no. Not to worry, because I’m going to install something that will protect this house forever. 

*stares into 11x16*

*goes to join Jody and Sam drinking that bottle*

* * *

Sometimes it’s hard not to credit Robbie with single handedly foretelling the entire show but on the other hand maybe he just writes very clever episodes other people and himself cribs from.

Also I feel he wouldn’t have pitched First Born if he knew how long that arc was going to drag on for :P

* * *

It’s weird that Sam and Jody have literally no deadline to get this sorted by. Of course they can sleep or go get junk food. Where’s the urgency?? :P

Sam’s “of course Dean is having wild self-insert fan fic adventures with Eliot Ness” face to Jody. Jody was still trying to work out if “Dean disappeared into the past in a flash of red light” was a normal occurrence or not, and then has to deal with THIS while Sam is like “this is nothing I once bullied Samuel Colt into lending me his magic gun and he stole my phone and posted it to me the slow way in return”

* * *

JODY USING AN ACTUAL POLICE BADGE TO GET INFO

I was just saying how Dean is enjoying working with real police his end of things :P

it’s funnier when it happens in the modern day and could be any one of their regular investigations except not fake

* * *

…. I think Chronos had a kid 

> LILA:   
> Oh. Is Michael in trouble again?
> 
> LILA:   
> I told him not to read those comic books.

And then when Ness grabs Lila, he holds a gun up against her stomach instead of her head or anything else? I mean this is ‘44 I think any close range gunshot to a vital area is going to be fatal, but that’s weirdly… evocative…

* * *

I say that because obviously 7x03 and all that drama and Amy had a kid. And then next episode is apparently Dean vs his Amazon baby

never mind the broader themes about parenthood that basically make up a chunk of the main plot with Bobby hogging the midseason drama

* * *

Waaaait wait wait wait

> ELIOT NESS:   
> Well, don’t forget to tell her about all the people you murdered along the way, boy scout.
> 
> LILA:   
> What?
> 
> CHRONOS:   
> It’s not like that. I do it for you, Lila.
> 
> LILA:   
> I don’t understand.

It’s a wild Destiel parallel! 

*throws a pokeball at it*

Obviously, Cas’s dialogue from the end of 6x20 telling Dean all the murder and drama and working with Crowley was done for Dean.

* * *

Oh Robbie.

* * *

Sam wrote 11:34 in huge letters in blood but he omitted all the other details of date and time

* * *

> CHRONOS:   
> Because I love her! Because I lived the worst existence you can imagine, and then I found you.
> 
> ELIOT NESS:   
> […] Don’t act like you never killed a soul before you met her, pal. Something tells me you used to kill three saps just for a change of scenery.
> 
> CHRONOS:   
> Yes, I did
> 
> CHRONOS:   
> I-I used to wander, but now I have you.

Aah, monsters redeemed by love. But still unable to control their natures. Still behaving monstrously not just despite the love but it twisting around  _because_  of it

…

Still with that same argument in 6x20 where Dean tells Cas he can’t do whatever he wants just because he can, and the argument takes on a whole thing about Cas’ lack of emotional maturity (Dean does not put it so nicely :P) and they have that fundamental rift between them - of course this drives home to Dean that Cas is an angel - a higher being like Chronos is a god - and Dean lashing out at Amy confirms how his feelings about non-human things is now messed up and he can’t be merciful to their supposed good intent or doing things out of love (it helps Chronos is considerably less redeemable than Amy by having to kill for himself). In this fight he’s still going to try to kill Chronos and not have sympathy for the situation, but the parallel (thanks Robbie for telling us really loudly how parallels work in 11x16 :P) re-casts this in a romantic vibe.

I’d guess actually between this and 7x15 that’s 2 romantic and ON THE NOSE Destiel parallels in fairly short succession - I can’t remember if there are other episodes between here and there that do similar although I can’t remember if there was any real parallel in 7x13 despite all that happens in there, 7x14 is Plucky’s and 7x16 doesn’t have romantic anything so far as I recall… So nope, it’s Robbie and Edlund doing the Destiel heavy lifting :P

(ALSO OMG CAS IS SO NEARLY BACK. I miiisss him!)

* * *

Yay BAMF Sam gets to stab Chronos

Mostly because then he gets to deliver the Leviathan warning more directly to Sam? He turns to talk to Dean, but I’m pretty sure he read Sam, or at least, once you see how 7x23 ends, you can say that it was about Sam. 

…

Woah okay someone over-stuffed their episode we just immediately go to credits.

lol

I hope Robbie wasn’t too attached to any BM scene he through in to wrap it up

* * *

*checks typos while the DVD runs through all the warnings in the languages and goes to check out the deleted scenes*

Yeeep aside from 20 seconds of Sam and Jody driving and discussing where they need to get their spell ingredients, there’s like 2 more minutes of episode on here

Sam and Dean say goodbye to Jody but she gives Sam the biggest hug and he gets his flustered happy Jody look about him

oh my gosh Sam’s crush on Jody will always be the cutest thing okay

* * *

Heh the deleted scene starts out with Dean claiming Ness let him be an Untouchable whatever that is (this sounds kind of dodgy tbh) but then they get serious and sad about the warning about the Leviathan. Actually weighing up for the first time this season if they really stand a chance against them or if Chronos is right and this is the first fight they really genuinely can’t win

* * *

Dean: “I think the old man didn’t die for us to stand around wondering”

OH GOD Dean calling Bobby “the old man” is about as bad as Bobby cheerfully calling them “my boys” all through 11x16 with an intensity he never seemed to use in front of them while he was alive >.>

* * *

“I think we’re here to do what we can.  _That_  I have clarity on.”

To wrap up the arc started with Dean saying he doesn’t know much of anything right now. It’s not as positive as it sounds: this is also showing he’s absorbed the Dick Roman revenge quest as his reason to continue on, as Bobby said. Listen, Bobby and Dean BOTH go vengeful about this. Their entire second half of the season is inextricably connected. Dean having clarity is only that he has a revenge mission he has to complete.

When Sam leaves, Dean looks sketchily around and I was really hoping Robbie would throw in a final laugh and have an anime joke, but nope, he opens the laptop and goes back to obsessively googling Dick.

… I mean I still cackled

because Dick has erected a tower

Always watch the deleted scenes for Dick jokes you’ve never seen before.

* * *

I feel like maybe we should think about this more though because in 7x01 the anime was Dean at an absolute lowest, drinking in the morning, wait for the world to explode, given up completely on Cas, low point… Sam is making fun but he also creates this sort of binary of anime or Dick, Dean’s 2 “reasons” to be using the laptop. Of course taking into context 7x01 this also shines a further light on how Dean isn’t wallowing but directing that SAME despair - the reference to anime coming hand in hand with Dean’s loss of faith in Cas - into his revenge mission, again, something caused by Cas’s actions and so of course it all stays intrinsically linked.

This season is as much about Cas from start to finish as it is about Dick ;)

* * *

(I’m glad I finally saw the last scene - it ties up so much of this episode somehow!)


	13. 7x13

Or: Listen, I’ve unironically almost enjoyed this episode before knowing what a Buckleming was, so I’m conflicted. As far as I can recall apart from the entire concept being kinda weird and bad and YMMV on the squick factor, this is one of their episodes where nothing abjectly terrible happens? Which is a win. Or, I’m taking it as one :P

* * *

I am full of dread on what I will discover with full hindsight that I’ve never visited this episode with before…

* * *

The whole recap is Dean’s shitty season 7, starting with Bobby dying although I think that was for the ghost!Bobby stuff this episode…

then it recaps Amy because of course we haven’t had any mention of that for several episodes, but no Cas. Obviously Amy because parallels to Sam killing Emma… Still annoying that it seems to be dragging that fight back up again after it was buried after being resolved, although as far as I can recall 7x14 starts with Dean kinda grossed out but happy never to talk about this again and it does not become a huge drama like with Amy since the WTF of the whole thing is an in-universe feeling too :P

But then it goes over Dean’s terrible mental state… Obviously Dean in a sort of meltdown all episode because terrible decisions lead directly to this episode’s problem for him, and this is where we really start Dean’s drinking on the job etc… The recap of Dean talking about feeling aimless and Frank telling him to keep smiling plastered over Dean struggling to do that is an EXTREMELY good recap ending and very chilling because it’s a LONG moment rather than the choppy cutting of every other montage moment that flashes up long enough to remind us it existed: this one very clearly sets up and lets us stew on Dean in a terrible place.

* * *

The first guy who dies really seems to be killed by a dude because they made an emphasis to show the killer in what looks like men’s shoes and a suit… It’s obviously screwing with expectations and gendered clothing, and in hindsight of knowing the episode it’s pretty interesting as a choice… I mean the Amazons are so extremely female coded as a people/species/whatever they are in this, that disguising the cold open killer in a way to make you assume they’re a man is messing around with an actual plot-affecting expectation…

(I don’t remember the writing implying the Amazons were all lesbians in their spare time, or any of them being coded that way, even the “boss” Amazons we met rather than the “viable breeding Amazons” (ew), except for when they needed to do their freaky mating thing - the reason I remember being given for them ending up as these monsters was fairly neutral? and honestly the less about the gender politics in this the better… I know Amazon doesn’t directly = lesbian but any story about a bunch of ladies deciding they don’t need men in their society always carries at least undertones… And then this episode is entirely about wondering how this society would have babies anyway and go have lots of baby-making sex with dicks involved so my MAIN take away from this was assuming this episode just forgot lesbians existed entirely and just inexplicably hung up on how this society that isolates itself from men ends up entirely dependent on men with a weird bug-like life cycle which then invariably would attract the attention of hunters and get loads of them killed BY men for their necessary INVOLVEMENT with men thanks to their essential biological imperative to have kids with men… which with these writers is actually a good interpretation… 

But anyway I’m assuming this bit at least was a director Wanek decision more than their writing choice since it would have been more up to him how to present the death/conceal the murderer, so at least here I’m charitable and also assuming there was an ulterior motive on misdirection rather than a statement :P

Obviously woman in a suit & sensible shoes doesn’t = lesbian IRL but I mean coding stuff for TV & film blah blah convoluted path to Dean wearing bisexual plaid :P)

* * *

I think that’s at least a 10th of the reservations I had about this episode going into it… :P

* * *

Anyway to my amusement, I remember saying back in 1x13 that Buckleming seemed to come to writing with a fundamental misunderstanding of the way around to do the character stuff - like they just somehow flipped Sam and Dean’s motivations? Which is season 1 WERE FAIRLY SIMPLE MOTIVATIONS…. I felt like something was a little backwards in their first episode on their return although I’m not sure I ever put my finger on it, but this one opens with Sam driving and Dean sleeping, like how Sam started last episode sleeping, and I was linking that to his actual ongoing plot problems, since it’s all going to end up about sleep, and  _soon_  now. I suppose it’s a fair point that Dean after last episode is noping out of MotW and if Sam loaded him into the car and insisted they do this the least Sam can do is drive so Dean doesn’t have to put any effort into it, so it’s not like it doesn’t make sense in the episode… just like their random new stances on life the universe and everything in 1x13 made sense with what was going on with them there… just somehow misses the main themes :P

While also, of course, ticking off major plot stuff, because first appearance of Bobby’s flask since Dean sneaked it in 7x11, and he does grumble about wanting to keep hunting Dick.

Of course, after 11x16 where Sam reminded him out loud that this is what they do: MotW when no main plot leads present themselves, I’m quite amused that “saving Cas” and “hunting Dick” have blurred across the years

:’)

* * *

I’m gonna miss season 7 I mean this show is so long now it’s going to take me a year just to rewatch it when season 10 was my original endgoal and now look we’re ¾ths of the way through 11, so who knows when I’ll be back down here in an organised rewatch :P

* * *

… I could just rewatch it and… not… talk…

* * *

So anyway Sam and Dean show up at the morgue, in their red and blue conflict colour ties, and here’s the cute… “forensics officer” according to the transcript, okay mr fancy pants title, who Dean gets way too attached to in under 3 seconds

honestly I thought he was gonna get murdered as a result of this scene the first time I watched it like how in 5x14 the morgue guy Dean clicked with was one of the victims but nah Dean was just flirting with him and didn’t know when to turn it off and I’m pretty sure his emotional relevance to Dean begins and ends with this scene.

pretty sure Dean’s already drinking on the job here so that goes in with 4x06 and Dean drunk and flirting on the job with the cute deputy

Dean gets way into roleplaying the FBI agent with him which is ANOTHER thing from my season 4 fascination with Dean and the FBI cover, which of course culminates in the Siren episode… So I mean that’s the tl:dr on what it means when Dean gets cute about his fake identity. Of course, he’s gonna go off and hook up with the Amazon while playing another, DIFFERENT fake identity so he’s deep into his escapism covers and honestly this episode has always got a nervously applied pass from me just for this because this is an actual scripted, narratively solid bi!Dean parallel that references some serious bi!Dean episodes in his behaviour patterns, as well as this internal consistency with him doing this here and then going on to apply the same behaviour in his hook up a few minutes later

* * *

Oh hey Lydia. 

This conversation is almost way too intimately shot? It’s really distracting and also makes me feel like I’m overseeing something I shouldn’t :P

> DEAN:   
> I’ve had a fortunate year. 

Dean I literally just described your year as shitty thanks to the recap. 

He’s probably honest about not being ready to commit though, although less because investment banking is a time sucking job and more because his husband exploded into monstrous black goo in a lake and that takes a little while to get back to the idea of marriage after that sort of trauma

The emphasis on him smiling seems especially cruel after the recap, which reminded you how dead inside he currently is, so the extreme close ups of their faces also are kind of uncomfortable and telling you about the bad decision Dean is going to make and why…

* * *

Never mind the whole parallel with a guy getting murdered while they hook up, and the strong suggestion that Lydia is the monster or related to them just by paralleling her shoving Dean with the victim… I mean this isn’t a subtle marked for death sequence for him :P

And then the next morning basically the first thing we hear is Sam telling him he looks like crap and Dean saying he feels worse… I’ve seen meta somewhere or other about this episode and how this hook up was forced and Dean going through the motions… Just the juxtaposition with the murder makes it impossible to view the whole scene as sexy (which gets very lost when you only see it as gifsets that slice out the sexy times and put them on their own for ages on your dash :P) and the implication from the start that Lydia is not what she seems, all add up with the other details about this. So if OUR feeling of the scene is all wrong bad then it makes you wonder how Dean feels about it, as it’s not played up for anything on its own and the graphic murder it’s cut with obviously is supposed to take mood precedence and influence how you’re seeing the sex scene… (Like, it wasn’t a sappy love scene or something that conflicted with the images of the murder - it was somehow exactly the sort of scene that CAN be juxtaposed with a gruesome murder :P)

* * *

… Hah, Dean saying “I think I’m getting too old for this”… wow if he feels that way in season 7….

* * *

Give the man some character development!

* * *

There’s a very yellow painting in the dead guy’s apartment, and the guy who Sam goes to talk to from 2 doors down has a yellow striped shirt and bright yellow stripe on his sleeve like the bright yellow police tape across the bottom of the screen

chill, Wanek

* * *

Imagine if Dean had never managed to get the flask back and Bobby had ended up haunting the weird Amazon house for the rest of ever.

* * *

Aaaaand it’s getting weird.

* * *

Amazons have very quick, clean, quiet births but I suppose they also have a “next” queuing system to have a baby.

… 

> WOMAN:   
> The pain is an honor. 

Dunno how much to dig into this because the whole concept is one of the stupider things humanity has believed but childbirth pain was supposed to be punishment for the original sin from Eve, and then this  _episode_  has a really nonsense concept so that makes me doubly wary to actually wonder if they’re doing something in a silly episode with a stupid concept but anyway that thought is on the table in case someone ever feels like writing anything on that subject…

* * *

Ooh it’s that professor guy that was in a couple of episodes before they sent him to like outer mongolia or something. Thanks, Berens. 

*looks him up* 

Oh okay, Buckleming just used him once again in 8x03 and then Berens threw him all the way to Papua New Guinea to stop him being useful and also because he was really annoying and he only exists in this episode to delay the Amazon reveal while the plot wheels are still turning because the symbol is TOO obvious so if they googled it and there were results, then that would be case close, except then because they have to do that a whole load of time is spent running back and forth and having scenes with him and basically Buckleming pacing happened

fun fact: I liked 9x06 before anything else even happened in it just for that. :P

* * *

YIKES, COSTUME DEPARTMENT

Does that top seem familiar? Rewind your way alllll the way back to [1x06](https://t.umblr.com/redirect?z=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.homeofthenutty.com%2Fsupernatural%2Fscreencaps%2Fdisplayimage.php%3Falbum%3D6%26pid%3D107402%23top_display_media&t=YWRhMzliZjUwNDU0NjQ3YjZhOTM5YjVlOGM1MzllMTc3MTlmOTQ4ZSxrWHlmWk9tQg%3D%3D&b=t%3AEoTmUHpiEEiE91JGAXVv3Q&p=https%3A%2F%2Felizabethrobertajones.tumblr.com%2Fpost%2F141716201130%2F7x13-rewatch-or-listen-ive-unironically-almost&m=1)

it was worn by the girl shifter!Dean was torturing in that episode

I guess they has a creepy non-romantic conversation where they seemed to be connecting before he obviously then tied her up and tortured her, so there’s a flipped around mistrust of the person you’re bonding with, this time with Dean as the victim of the deception?

I don’t know if we’re supposed to read into this episode as a parallel of Skin in any way - I can’t think of any real connections (like, that would have occurred to me WITHOUT this)

* * *

Maybe it’s just for girls who open doors

* * *

Anyway Dean thinks Emma is adorable and is immediately drawn to go smile at her, and this makes me sad just because Dean and kids and then THIS and it’s so creepy… I mean this episode seemed to somehow put Dean off kids even more than ever and I can see why because AAAH TALKING BABY >.>

* * *

Ooh the curly haired forensic technician whatever spends a lot more screen time than I thought - he was left with Dean off-screen when Sam was talking to the neighbour (I assume more flirting happened) but here Sam is with him alone.

Sam is doing most of the legwork on this case because Dean is distracted but unfortunately that means no actual on-screen follow up for Dean’s actual crush of the week :P

* * *

(It’s like… he was healing! Ness made him think he was ready for something again! And hey cute forensics wizard guy shows up! *quickly diverts all energy into a hook up with a lady that quite possibly actually did put him off sex until season 9* Sooo close and yet so far. :P)

* * *

uh anyway the actual episode is still happening and we’re only halfway through

* * *

even though Dean was the one who was tricked/violated/whatever you call this Sam insinuates that DEAN is being the creepy obsessive ex stalking his hook up and I mean he does stake out her house but I mean 

Sam also won’t listen to Dean’s protestations that it IS weird and this whole thing has a horrible vibe about Dean as a rape victim whose experiences won’t be believed, even if he enjoyed the sex at the time he ended up, you know, getting harvested for the sake of making a baby and also rape by deception, as bad as 9x03′s scenario even before Cas got stabbed (thanks Buckleming)

(while I was taking a break to scroll my dash I walked right into this post too:

> Which is, I think, fairly typical of the inherent differences in how the Winchesters are treated: Dean is always portrayed as the more romantically vulnerable of the two, while Sam - despite having been assaulted numerous times - is assumed to be able to ‘handle it’ in a way that his brother can’t. Women preying on Sam, even after his experiences in hell, are implied to have comic effect; but we’re never quite allowed to ignore Dean’s discomfort in the same way. 

<http://bisexualdeanwinchester.tumblr.com/post/141629399937>)

* * *

Anyway on a lighter note their fridge in their motel which literally looks like its theme is “derelict shack” but has Motel Stuff in it, contains just beer and slices of cheese

living it up

* * *

> DEAN:   
> Lydia’s handing this kid who’s calling her mommy over to these two women, right? But this is not a baby. No, no, this kid’s got to be five. And same name – Emma.
> 
> SAM:   
> You know, George Foreman named all his sons George.
> 
> DEAN:   
> Are you deliberately messing with me?

I kind of really don’t like how unsympathetic Sam is being about this because it’s making Sam unsympathetic *holds on tight because Plucky’s is next and that’s the best Sam episode on the show so I will love him again immediately tomorrow morning I have it on my caledar: NO LIE-IN YOU MUST WAKE UP BRIGHT AND EARLY TO WATCH SAM GET BEATEN UP BY CLOWNS* 

Dammit Buckleming get out of my way

* * *

anyway some plot stuff happens and then they start digging out Bobby’s files for another roadblock on the way to just solving this case. Sam is still pretty chill and Dean is now outright ansty and snappy 

I mean technically this sort of Sam being cute and snarky is my fave sort of Sam, but like… not in this context… no

* * *

Also how does Sam not realise as he’s talking that this is what happened with Dean. Even Dean realises it. 

This just makes Sam look bad to be so slow on the uptake

* * *

Oh anyway ha ha I forgot to mention that Amazon culture is even worse than I remembered - 

> SAM:   
> [after a pause] Right. Um, apparently, there was this long, bloody war. The Amazon population was decimated, so they made a bargain with Harmonia to replenish their ranks and make them stronger. 

they’re literally just a terrifying birthing cult, with their whole society based around this fertility ritual for the women to have as many babies as possible 

which fair enough in war but now it’s just weird

… TBH I needed to slap a note to my forehead before I started watching which said “Lizzy don’t do that thing you do where you overthink the world building. Just don’t.”

* * *

> DEAN:   
> No. You know what? We’re – stop. We’re not gonna talk about this anymore because my skin’s starting to crawl! 

:(

But…

Same. :P

* * *

It’s like they wanted to drive Dean to drink

* * *

Omg they’re not in a motel

they’re in a hotel - not just any hotel, a hotel with that sign with the crown on top from episodes such as Tall Tales and 5x01

and Bobby just got too impatient and saved them from themselves by shoving the right piece of paper at them

*yelling forever about this totally random stupid but bizarrely consistent theme of this hotel and Bobby and more specifically, the scorecard they’re keeping of saving each other in them*

I am now weirdly disappointed 11x16 didn’t include this type of hotel but instead had a motel room because wow imagine that one following up this theme.

* * *

Sam also goes with doubt about it being Bobby, especially with his own problems with reality this season (and I forgot just how long we go without seeing Lucifer around - not even a midseason reminder!) but he’s basically disbelieving or doubting or taking too long to accept everything this episode so I’m not sure what’s what or if this is a theme. :P I suppose this is the more important, main arc dialogue here so if this theme for Sam was about anything it would be this?

Since in 7x10 he has to be harshly real about what’s happening when Bobby dies, he also has to draw a line that without real, serious evidence about Bobby being back as a ghost, he just can’t afford to speculate on reality right now.

* * *

Apparently this is called the Century Hotel

Sam leaves Dean behind for plot convenience, even though it would have made a lot more sense to keep an eye on him by taking him with.

* * *

Hi Emma!

It’s kind of a low blow that she uses rebelling against her people and running away to earn enough trust from Dean to get through the door…

And of course, all these Dean-like things:

> EMMA:   
> They stick you in there, and you trust them. It’s all you know. And you don’t question what they want you to do – terrible things. That’s why I had to leave. They tortured me.
> 
> They told me I had to endure pain so I could be strong like them. But I don’t want to be like them.

but then once she’s in the door it becomes more of the nature of the monster argument hence dragging up Amy:

> DEAN:   
> Okay. Let’s assume that you’re not… like them. Yet. 

… actually this is more about Dean’s decision to let Amy’s kid go?

I don’t know

I never know with Buckleming parallels :P

* * *

I can’t believe Emma tried to imply Dean was an absent father

I mean technically

but that wasn’t really in his control :P

Muddy metaphor is muddy

* * *

I suppose also dragging up Bobby’s death episode and all the fathers and kids stuff from that… 

* * *

I guess if nothing else this season is a great argument for nature vs nurture with nurture winning (since we saw Emma get indoctrinated with no time for Dean to talk her back from it), and then that in turn relates back to the argument between Dean and Cas and then going forward when Cas comes back, with him learning and changing 

* * *

This season is literally about Cas to the core and it’s ridiculous I can’t unlike this season despite all its best efforts >.>

* * *

> SAM:   
> What’s it say?
> 
> PROFESSOR:   
> Oh, I haven’t gotten there yet. The paper is handmade. A cellulose, rather like papyrus, which would explain its durability.

This is like that bit in the Two Towers where Merry and Pippin just want the ents to fight and they’re like *8 hours pass and it’s got dark* “We’re only just finished saying… good morning.”

* * *

Wait is that gold knife the boss Amazon who comes for Sam had one that they use later? (like… 11x11 later) I mean, prop reuse or Sam nicking it in case it’s useful?

* * *

They probably nicked it I mean how expensive is a sold gold knife on their budget?

* * *

> EMMA:   
> It’s not her place.  _I_  have to kill you.
> 
> DEAN:   
> Is that what they told you?
> 
> EMMA:   
> It’s what I am.
> 
> DEAN:   
> Well, then, I should just kill you right now.
> 
> EMMA:   
> Sure. But you could have done that 30 seconds ago.

Like… Dean clearly doesn’t think she’s inherently evil - he’s probably quite sympathetic to the fact she was raised in a murder cult and has 3 days life experience and has been given a stupid mission to kill someone - but she’s still a danger so he can’t just not point a gun at her. Sooo he’s hesitating to kill her

> DEAN:   
> You haven’t killed anybody yet, Emma. Walk away. 

Like, these reasons hold so true to Dean all the time that him killing that kid in 10x22 was such a huge deal not just because he killed a kid but because it was a kid in this sort of situation… Weird murder cult family… I dunno

> EMMA:   
> I can’t. I don’t have a choice. 

Like thaaat’s when you see Dean really looking horrified/upset because choice/free will/whatever is his only real belief system, and rather than sinister and making her more murdery, it makes her to Dean’s eyes definitely a victim of whatever greater forces put her up to it? 

(And I mean I’m weirded out by her being a Cas parallel as well but there is that. Let’s just… not think about that too much because obviously Cas is not Dean’s kid in any real permutation of the metaphors about their character dynamics out in the rest of the text…

I mean one of the arguments for why Cas wasn’t a vision Dean saw in 11x16 was that it was all about parent-child relationships hence it being Sam…)

* * *

so of course Sam shoots her

* * *

As well as the locket and the blonde hair she’s wearing white with flowers on under her (tan) canvas jacket, so she’s doing some extra duty as a Mary parallel especially since Sam shoots her in the stomach so the blood splatter is there

* * *

Honestly I don’t know what Emma is supposed to represent

* * *

A Wear A Condom awareness campaign

* * *

Oh look Sam is driving again

okay I forgot that Sam is the one annoyed with Dean for NOT killing Emma because Dean DID kill Amy. Dean is sympathetic to why Sam did it (Emma did say like 100 times she was going to kill him and nothing would change her mind) but nah more arguing even though Dean was in a surprisingly good mood by the end

I literally don’t remember this argument spilling past this even into next episode which is implied to be like, literally next morning and they’re all cheerful and ready for a nonsense clown case

* * *

I am sort of baffled about how they resolved that but hey, Cas mention for my trouble of watching all this!

> SAM:   
> You know what? Bobby was right. Your head’s not in it, man. When Cas died, you were wobbly, but now… 

I guess they were running out of episode and were banned from having a new argument spill over because I’m not even sure Emma gets mentioned by name in the start of next episode, never mind ever again, so the conversation gets “I can’t stay mad at you” funny… (even though, like, wow can they hold grudges if the start of this season was anything to go by :P)

> DEAN:   
> Now  _what?_  Oh, what, you’re dealing with it so perfect? Yeah, news flash, pal – you’re just as screwed up as I am! You’re just… bigger.
> 
> SAM:   
> What?!
> 
> DEAN:   
> I don’t know.

And then a bit more heartfelt while Sam - I guess because no one ever watches this episode? - has some under-quoted dialogue for the ongoing People Giving Dean Advice series:

> SAM:   
> Look… Dean, the thing is, tonight… It almost got you killed. Now, I don’t care how you deal. I really, really don’t. But just don’t – don’t get killed.
> 
> DEAN:   
> I’ll do what I can.
> 
> SAM:   
> Well, what’s that supposed to mean?
> 
> DEAN:   
> It means I’ll do what I can. All right? You can shut up about it.

This is a sort of dead neutral when it comes to advice, while Bobby and Frank both gave Dean advice on dealing… Sam also has/had his own struggles but at the moment apparently can’t scrounge up any applicable advice for what to do about it, despite the fact he’s been doing some serious coping of his own all season. But he does remind Dean that he does actually care that Dean doesn’t die, which is indirectly a reason for Dean to maybe not get killed…

Also, this was a kind of totally random change of direction because it swung around from being mad about Dean not killing Emma (despite… really understandable circumstances and I swear Sam said that HE would have struggled to kill Amy or agreeing with Dean saying he wouldn’t have and wouldn’t have been expected to do it or something???) to Dean just generally having a death wish this season and Sam’s concern about that…

Honestly that was the end of the episode why am I still wrangling Bucklemming for meaning?

(Someone’s gotta… :P)


	14. 7x14

Or: This is the most inappropriate use of fun in the entire show and I love it

* * *

LIKE every episode in season 7 up this point is unrelentingly depressing and then every episode AFTER is unrelentingly depressing I MEAN THE NEXT EPISODE IS ONE OF THE BLEAKEST FUCKING EPISODES OF THE SHOW

*random handful of fucking glitter thrown at the audience in between*

* * *

Did I ever tell you that a town I used to live in used to have Clown Week and the entire town centre would be full of clowns and I’d be 30 miles away staying with friends? :P

* * *

I was gonna start by yelling “run Sam, run!” and then remembered that’s how I started 6x22

(This is also a direct parallel to the Dabbflin Yellow Fever, with Dean and the lil doggie in the cold open, which was its own metaphor - this is basically Yellow Fever 2: the Reckoning and the monster chasing Sam is actually objectively scary)

“If it bleeds you can kill it” is also how Bobby was talking about the Leviathan - I can’t remember if he used the actual quote but near enough :P I think this advice came from Dean this episode, so more parallels between them

And of course the nightmarish clowns are a parallel to the Leviathan and Lucifer and generally Sam’s Shitty Season Seven, which has been on the back burner to Dean’s Shitty Season 7, but now in the next run of episodes we have Hallucifer back, Sam’s sleep breakdown and finally Sam being institutionalised as the crown jewel of Sam’s Shitty Season Seven

now I don’t wanna say the clowns broke him

but they ARE metaphoric of his problems catching up to him and beating the ever loving glittery shit out of him

this is how the plot turns around and becomes about Sam again and this is the most glorious Sam episode of the show :’)

And of course the glitter takes over the title card which is normally black goo, and we’re only 3 episodes after Sam had the warning that there was nothing but black goo in his future so if we’re collecting “Sam is personally victimised by the Leviathan” data here’s some more

(Like, Dean and Cas still have to deal with them in Purgatory, but the personal blow lands on Sam whereas normally it’s the other way around with that sort of nonsense falling on Dean)

* * *

Fucking 60 hour countdown to Clown O’Clock

* * *

Dean gets precious about the germs on the phone, and it occurs to me going from Dabbflin to Dabbflin episodes, the last time we really saw him this germphobic was in 6x18 if I haven’t missed any, though of course 7x09 and 7x12 both did their part about the living conditions and Dean being squirmy about them. 

Considering this is the season that strips everything away from them and gets them “back on the road” running from the Leviathan (season 7 PR was big on this I think? [@justanotheridijiton](https://tmblr.co/msbbZom6stVUaSwCo2j0eeQ) has been showing me so much my brain is melting about all the weird things they said to sell this season :P) BUT ANYWAY that was all trying to get them to this modern day cowboys ridin’ into town saving folk kind of thing, but their own writers have been undermining that whole ideal already - this is the “so much germier than expected” coming from inside the house to live up to the old adage of “PR is not showrunning”, and emphasising with a much deeper nuance that them squatting in hovels and derelict buildings while stealing cars full of other people’s trash is actually gross, unromantic, and even for hunters who’ve grown up on the road, this is a step too far for Dean (and to go back to Yellow Fever, one of his complaints was the sketchy motels they stayed in so even when they were on a slightly better footing with living conditions, it was still on the edge of what Dean was happy with).

* * *

Anyway for no reason let me present these two lines out of context:

> SAM:   
> So, we got dick on Dick?
> 
> DEAN:   
> That’s a vivid way of putting it.

> DEAN:   
> In fact, no baby mamas. No bars. No booze – no hot chicks of any kind. 

I think you have a solution to your problem there, Dean. ;D

(THE FACT HE STOPS AND VISUALISES GAY PORN FOR A SECOND MID-CONVERSATION AND THEN REALISES HE’S THINKING ABOUT GAY PORN MID CONVERSATION AND SAM IS WAITING FOR A SENSIBLE REACTION

WHAT WAS SEASON 7?)

* * *

Also! Kansas! This ends up being a childhood episode for them in a way so I appreciate that link, but this episode is probably set in Kansas entirely for 

> SAM:   
> I mean, aren’t… giant octopi rare around here?
> 
> DOCTOR:   
> Yet here we are.

* * *

> DEAN:   
> Ohh. Those are not the fun kind of hickeys. 

Do we even want to analyse what’s up with Dean in the background of this episode? All he’s done is think about getting the clap, dick on Dick, baby mommas and octopus hickeys

> DOCTOR:   
> Obviously, this was some kind of freak fetish attack. 

Obviously.

* * *

(Just assume I am cackling as I type everything this rewatch because it is true)

* * *

Sam, since this is his best episode (best hair, best fight scene, best chase scene, best scary face, best SCAREDY face) stops to politely thank the mom they were interviewing for her hospitality.

* * *

The house is no. 667, further suggestions of Lucifer not being far off haunting him

* * *

> DEAN:   
> Mom, dad, nanny – boy, that is a love triangle right out of Casa Erotica. ‘Course, in those, the jealous wife tends to channel her feelings more productively. 

Has he said anything non-sex-related this episode?

Sam gives him the old bitchface, and Dean goes to very politely and non-creepily interview the nanny because he is a professional, dammit, and he can keep it in his pants.

> NANNY:   
> No, nothing like that. Actually, Kelly does have a weird thing about closets. But it’s just kid stuff.
> 
> DEAN:   
> Try me.
> 
> NANNY:   
> She thinks there’s a monster in her closet. It drives everyone crazy.

I think about this post a lot:

<http://elizabethrobertajones.tumblr.com/post/125073168643/rainbofiction-omfjgc-so-you-know-how-spn-season>

  


It’s such an unexpected Dean face when he’s been SUCH a dorky goober so far this episode, and with literally everything he’s said so far this episode relating to his sexuality or sex in some way or another  _and we’re not even at the rainbow slinky yet_  and OMG season 7 is so heavy on the bi Dean and Destiel parallels…

And then the very next shot is Dean coming back into focus after that

~metaphors~

* * *

Of course while we’re talking about Leviathan foreshadowing latching itself onto Sam

(idk if they decided what would happen but he definitely seemed to be in threat of being eaten at the very least :P)

Tell me it isn’t.

* * *

… Unicorn.

Rainbow unicorn

* * *

This episode is objectively gay

* * *

The guy was pierced by the horn hurr hurr

* * *

*brief break to watch Sam get beaten up some more*

This is what I appreciate in an episode :P

* * *

Not but seriously the clowns are BRUTAL and UNKILLABLE 

I know people often make the comparison of “here’s Sam Winchester in a room with Satan and here’s Sam Winchester in a room with a clown” but the parallel is actually made on the show, here and in 11x07 where Sam was trapped on the elevator with a clown in brief foreshadowing to him being stuck in the cage again with Lucifer in 2 episodes.

I mean, this fight must have been Hallucifer taking a break to sit back and enjoy the show because he could do NOTHING worse…

And the sheer brutality of the fight, especially in hindsight to 11x10 with here the clowns tag teaming punching Sam, but there TFW tag teaming punching Lucifer (in a DABB episode) it seems especially blatant. (I mean he was hitting them all much harder than he was hitting them, but parallels can work backwards and they were all a bunch of clowns for all 3 of them to get fuckin’ stuck in the cage like wow A+ decision making, team)

*cough*

Anyway these clowns ARE Satan as far as the story is concerned.

* * *

> DEAN:   
> Huh.
> 
> [to POLICE OFFICER] Hey. Um… Okay, so, the horse I get. The hoofprints, the jumping over the fence. But, uh, what ran him through?
> 
> POLICE OFFICER:   
> Best thing I could tell you is something  _big._
> 
> DEAN:   
> So, what, like a lance?
> 
> The POLICE OFFICER shrugs.

DEAN YOU SOPPY ROMANTIC

well I mean

I guess I knight in shining armour going around murdering folks is still pretty dark, but the fact his brain went there at all??

* * *

The billboard the guy was murdered against was one for a Local Sports Thing whose logo is a wasp, which is basically just a murderous bee, so I’m taking this as a Cas parallel despite that association not yet made

You know especially since Dean is still in his heartbreak and betrayal phase about all that so Cas is more of the murder bee than the sweet bumblebee he is later in the season

* * *

Oh maaaan Sam’s face HERE WE GO

Guess when he hears it

* * *

This is the episode with the frankly terrifying and also inexplicable Tiki theme motel, which is as close to a beach episode as we’ve ever come

The Red vs Green colour scheme shows up which seems more like stop lights to me right now while I’m blanking on what they could be used for as conflict colours. Mostly it seems like a safety/danger dichotomy, with Sam standing over in the green, unaware of the looming threat of the clowns.

There’s something slightly hellish about the red eyes and scary face of the giant tiki mask taking up a lot of the foreground, which adds further warning to the scene

* * *

> SAM (on phone):   
> Uh, you would dump me and go trolling for chicks. 

once again, Dean and his… love life…? playing a role in the plot

I’m also thinking of how tiny Colin Ford was and so how Sam probably looked a lot younger than his age for a long time so Dean would get away with leaving him there years longer than Sam should have been playing at and enjoying a Plucky’s :P

* * *

This episode is honestly the best use of Jared as a comic actor.

> SAM (on phone):   
> Fun? Uh, they’re lame. And they smell like puke. And the ice cream is all grainy. 

:’)

As Dean says “clown thing” we get a new different angle on Sam with the red light blaring behind him

bingo

* * *

> _EXT. PLUCKY PENNYWHISTLE’S MAGICAL MENAGERIE – DAY_
> 
> A sign on the awning of the building reads “Where all your dreams are good!” SAM is sitting in the Jeep.
> 
> SAM:   
> I’m too old for this.

Aw Sam you’re still scared of clowns in 4 years :’) We put it to the test just to check…

Also, in the here and now, we have Sam trying to reassure himself of something that isn’t true (you’re never too old for your childhood fears to come barrelling out of nowhere and hitting you like you’re 5 again, if you never learned to cope with them or get past the fear, merely repressed it and pretended you were fine - and hey who’s spent like 10 episodes at least desperately repressing a manifested fear and pretending Lucifer isn’t there?) but it being blatantly wrong… 

Thinking also of this being paralleled with Dean trying to pep talk himself into the hook up in 7x04 that never happened… he wasn’t ready then, and when he finally does get his hook up last episode, it’s bad enough (not coming from a place of recovery but ongoing repression and bad coping methods) he starts this episode swearing off women - and not only that but he’s held to it for over a season, until season 9 shoved him back into the sort of bad place where he was looking for hookups for the same sorts of reasons. 

(Dean’s sexuality is like, open book on the table this episode I think drawing parallels is fair game)

* * *

Whyy does that clown have glowing red eyes though?

this place is needlessly creepy

* * *

The woman who nearly becomes the last victim always reminded me of Amy in looks AND she has a small boy… Especially with last episode bringing up Amy and the whole kids thing again, and then this episode having Dean compared to the lazy parents who dumped their kids here etc… it’s bringing up those themes again… I can’t remember if the parenthood theme goes past this episode in such a strong way so this might be the conclusion of it, and they save the mom to look after her son another day and Sam and Dean exorcise some of their own demons relating to this place… But anyway season 7 has had a lot about parenthood and this is sort of Dean’s crappy parenting of Sam under the spotlight (although Sam is the one chased by clowns - how unfair is that? :P) but Dean lurking here later gets to see what it’s like, anyway… And experience it as a kid a little. They all have a learning experience :P

* * *

I wonder what the basketball monster would have been like… that thing is HORRIFYING

* * *

> JEAN:   
> I know. But we don’t post the truly evil stuff – just the standard crap like sharks and ghosts. 

I love the implication in this episode that kids are just kind of baseline chaotic evil in this world… it makes sense. I mean the kid who was drawing the octovamp was played for a spooky watching from the stairs semi-jump scare and then shown casually drawing the monster on the pavement…. And she’s not the monster at all :S

* * *

Sam doesn’t look impressed with the idea of getting his childhood trauma  _therapy_  from a Plucky’s

Jean is one of my fave minor characters from this season as well… :D 

Also I’m pretty sure she survives the episode :P

* * *

BALLPIT SHARK

That’s a childhood fear all on its own

* * *

Oh gosh I forgot Sam and Dean were driving a shitty car that looks vaguely reminiscent of Cas’s car.

Did they have it last episode or is Dabb just really fond of manifesting this type of car

* * *

“The ball washer” yep Dean is still at it

has he stopped thinking about dicks at all this episode?

* * *

Sam’s face is such a treasure

as is his permanently ready to punch things face while he’s inside the Plucky’s.

* * *

Gosh the clown fight is the best thing on this show

…

okay so I was genuinely frightened by the nest in 11x16 so I’d have to say second scariest monsters now as of like 2 days ago

but they’re SO GOOD like all the giggling and over-acting and just all the use of their clown skills in beating Sam up…

It brings a tear to my eye

* * *

> SAM:   
> True. Um… angel?
> 
> DEAN:   
> It’s a little imaginative for the God squad, don’t you think?

(Also any episode where they have to wonder if it’s a Tulpa… :D)

Anyway Dean being grumpy about angels. And we KNOW the reason they’d say it’s angels is because Gabriel who is a FONT OF IMAGINATION when it comes to doing terrible things to people and therefore he’s probably thinking about one certain angel here. :’)

* * *

> DEAN:   
> Yeah, yeah. Guy in his thirties hanging out at Plucky’s alone – that’s normal. That’s not pervy at all. 

Obviously not a commentary on Dean being pervy here, just that once again he ends up thinking of all the dodgy interpretations of what’s going on, in this case wondering how he will look to others and assuming the worst (no one even tells him off in there, AND he spends time interacting with the kids)

* * *

Bonus scary octopus for your time!

I’m guessing if that girl who drew it has her own trauma just like Sam’s from being left here… Makes you wonder if Ball Pit Shark was a literally translated fear as well - all these kids getting Sam’s same trauma not of random things but of stuff INSIDE Plucky’s… :P All your dreams are good pfffft it’s a NIGHTMARE FACTORY

* * *

Scary Sam!

Once again like with him baiting the Vetalas in 7x11, Sam channels some real inner darkness here. I remember in 7x15 Lucifer goads him to be more menacing than normal as well, so I am taking it that Sam is getting a lot of behaviour pointers from Lucifer

* * *

Dean’s open vulnerability on his face when he sees the slinky though… his lack of childhood breaks me

* * *

I think it is beautiful that the 3 things he keeps in the back of the cars, that are just for him, this season are the my little pony, a rainbow slinky, and Cas’s trenchcoat

like do we use the trunk of the car as a metaphor for stuff on Dean’s mind or representations of Dean? (I mean, like, Mystery Spot used it for Sam but Dean’s trunk of the car was just the “default” to that…) Crowley was shoved in there at the start of season 9 and that was the season he wormed his way into Dean’s mind, after all… So this season there’s actually a consistent theme of aside from the Cas stuff, him shoving childhood fun things in the trunk - this episode more openly and less as a sly joke that he did it you have to have sharp eyes to catch. Dean’s repressed childhood… And his face here when he sees the slinky telling everything

and of course then because he’s keeping the trenchcoat in there, you have to wonder what else he’s repressing

(AND this season it’s not his car it’s random cars, so he’s all shaken up and exposed and we’re getting more focus on what’s in the back of the car than ever before…)

* * *

Dean has never looked like he’s about to punch a guy more than when he’s denied his rainbow slinky

* * *

Ahahaha Sam could not work at a Plucky’s

I think he defensively grew the season 7 sideburns entirely as a pre-emptive measure for this episode in case Dean tried to make him go undercover as an employee

like his psychic crap tripped because of the Lucifer thing and he had this INTENSE warning to grow some serious facial hair this year and he was like ??? really Lucifer?? and Lucifer was like why are you looking at me I didn’t tell you to do that?? and then later Sam woke up in a cold sweat dreaming about clowns and the next day when he was shaving he was like well you know it wouldn’t hurt to just… leave this area to grow a little…

* * *

Dean seems kind of concerned about what Sam did to poor Jean :P

* * *

I love Dean stealing the tickets just in case he can save up enough to get the slinky

Sad about him and the kid talking at the same time because it kinda links him down to the kid… Also I guess also a shade of him and Ben here in making the kid bizarrely in tune with Dean in the same way Ben was blatantly a mini!Dean in personality

> TYLER:   
> What do you care?
> 
> DEAN:   
> Because I’ve been where you are.
> 
> TYLER:   
> Your mom made you camp at a stupid Plucky’s after school?
> 
> DEAN:   
> Y– no. No, but my dad, he… hauled me places.

Dean forced to realise that no, he inflicted this on Sam, this trauma is not his. He has his OWN trauma that’s different  :P

* * *

Sam is so scary

> SAM:   
> I’m the federal government, pal. I can do whatever I want. 

Chase scene! Chase scene thwarted by a clown for Sam!

And what even is this monstrosity:

I’m laughing hysterically

Plucky’s was probably inspired by like the entire cast and crew chipping in their nightmares and childhood weird shit

* * *

“At least I’ll see it coming”

Sam is just… okay. Whatever happens here? Giant robots? Okay.

* * *

Hahaha Dean does the same thing flinging something at the guy causing all this to distract him as the Lion Suit Dude does to Sam

OH Cowardly Lion… I can’t even remember where we are on the Oz stuff I mean 9x04 kicks it all really into gear. 

Obviously the robot with the laser eyes is the tin man

… I’m not even going to try to apply a full parallel to this episode I don’t have the courage either :P

* * *

Oh Sam and your OMG clowns face

* * *

RIGHT FRIGGIN’ NOW

*cackling*

* * *

> DEAN:   
> Some guy hits on the babysitter, all of a sudden he’s the world’s worst dad?
> 
> HOWARD:   
> A good parent puts his kids first.
> 
> DEAN:   
> And having a little girl watch her pop get ganked by the closet monster – that’s putting her first?

I am too busy laughing my ass off to analyse this but I mean this has to say something about Dean and his relationship with his father/own attitudes to parenting idk

Especially as then Howard is complaining about how his parents let his brother die and he was helpless to save him and it all comes down to Howard punishing other parents for his sense of being failed by his own…

I mean like this episode basically shows us Dean missed out on his childhood aaaand

the clown’s tooth flew across the screen in a slow mo spray of glitter I am not getting this thought back

This episode is not good for my “type through the action sequence” policy

Also! Good smart!Dean/detective!Dean on working out how to punish this guy

and his death comes about because he turns out even if he blamed his parents that he has his own horrible guilt about his brother dying

like… as a Dean mirror, he is GRIM

I am too addled by clowns to remember what season even was the Guilt Manifestation monster - something I recently rewatched or something from season 11 (edit: not literally like in 7x04 - there was something metaphoric of it! Aaah!)

* * *

And now Dean is laughing at Sam too

:’)

It’s SO good to see him smile this season

‘snot going to last

* * *

Sam takes a very philosophical stance on it probably BECAUSE like us he has a moment where he realises Dean is genuinely laughing for the first time since before the whole Grim Betrayal thing and Dean even realises Sam is looking at him funny

* * *

> SAM gives the giant slinky to DEAN
> 
> DEAN:   
> Did you win this?
> 
> SAM:   
> We earned that.

Dean you adorable little dork WHEN would Sam have had a chance to fairly win that - never mind the ticket redemption guy was just killed indirectly BY YOU and I’m pretty sure Plucky’s is closed now…

He has a weird code of honour :P

* * *

Dean’s present is much funnier and less tragic and Sam’s face when he catches and sees it will keep me going for many a month :’) Oh Sam vs clowns…

* * *

That horrible cackling over the start of the credits is actually me


	15. 7x15

Or: dammit Edlund the dog was so cute.

* * *

The recap is Lilith vs Dean, Dean murdering tons of demons, Dean breaking in Hell, Sam coming back from Hell in turn, Sam being BROKEN by Hell, and that’s basically it. Short and sweet.

* * *

“Four Years Ago” 

Which means we get to see the Impala because clearly that is the only reason to do a flashback… my heart aches to see her

* * *

I’m still laughing at Robbie doing “A Handful Of Years Ago” in 11x16 because the show has just…given up… there’s [evidence season 11 is taking place in 2017](http://sizzlebutt.tumblr.com/post/139078873043/interesting-thing-i-noticed-from-1112-so-this-bag) out there. Who even knows how much time has passed when season 8 was simultaneously after 2 time skips and also running current to airing time at some point… time is a meaningless construct.

In this case, season 3 or 4, because Lilith as the big bad (same excuse 11x16 used but with the clear existence of the apocalypse so a season 4 timescale - the fact it’s even more precise in location than this one and yet has a vaguer timestamp… heh.) Dean torturing demons seems weird because they didn’t do it and that was important enough that 4x16 - an Edlund episode - centred around Dean being made to torture Alastair and that being a HUGE deal so it seems out of context to have him cheerfully torturing anything before that.

I’ll accept this takes place some time after that and before 4x22 but it’s more likely this is a retcon for tone or part of the uncomfortable way torture became a lot more normal in later seasons - season 6 I think being the worst offender so far (with some help from Edlund…) although of course by now it’s just normal that when they need info they end up with a demon tied to a chair… Anyway, there’s a clip from 4x06 in the recap to get Dean and Lilith in one shot and so I’ll accept this is season 4 and I guess right near the end… it would be weird if this is what case Dean phoned Bobby about at the end of 11x16 although I’m pretty sure I’d remember him naming Coeur d’Alene since I have a friend from there and get exited when it’s mentioned in stuff… but yeah amused at the idea of the whole flashback continuity running separate to the main timeline :P

* * *

I like how they don’t even try with Sam’s hair

AU where Sam had season 7 hair in season 4

* * *

The demon calls Jeffrey a “puppy of a man” which just seems cruel with what happens later tbh

* * *

Also: terrible dilapidated shack = Sam’s poor mental state episode and of course this is where Sam accidentally talks to Hallucifer and starts a downwards slide

* * *

This is so brutal - I mean that’s the point - but even if this is all part of the creepy shift of TV showing way more torture to normalise it in modern times, Edlund clearly doesn’t LIKE it? This and 4x16 focus a LOT on how horrific and useless it is, and even if that makes for harrowing episodes I can respect that a little even f it’s horrible to keep showing it?

* * *

Jeffrey’s unhappy “thank you” when they drop him off at the hospital though

He really does start out sympathetic in the sense you absolutely do not approve of how the Winchesters treated him - the fact of the twist later doesn’t absolve this here where he was an innocent victim to their eyes & ours

* * *

Ew, this motel room.

> HALLUCIFER:  
> It’s nice. Kind of like a men’s room with beds.

* * *

it’s re-using the bedspreads from Yellow Fever which is a fairly direct link to the recap since we saw Dean and Lilith literally sitting on that bed when she hugged him… The green sofa in here has shown up a few times although I can’t think of any other plot-relevant instances to this… I’m assuming the green here is more of a thematic colour thing - a warning, specifically, I’d guess, although this episode does also highlight the toxic aspects of their methods/failures.

I’m aware Yellow Fever has shown up twice in 2 episodes in allusions or parallels, which would be great but we’ve entered a Sam-centric part of the season, and I literally can’t remember the main Dean drama aside from quiet continuation of his revenge arc stuff shared with Bobby as I recall… that mostly just leaves us open for focussing on the undercurrent of his depression and all that delicious Destiel stuff :3 I still think this is a horrific Destiel parallel but it’s here, and it exists, and much has been made of it especially in the huge Flutiebear season 7 meta so…

* * *

I did associate that green sofa with Gabriel’s return, and it’s heralded Cas stuff before, so I’ll take it as a hint Cas is coming back :P

* * *

> DEAN (on phone):  
> I don’t care that they’ve infiltrated the luxury boat industry, Frank. 

More bizarre Leviathan stuff - they really are settling in to pleasant human lives. I’d assume their hunger drives them to consumerism as much as they also just use that as a ladder/framework for their plans.

it’s a metaphor

* * *

> DEAN:  
> All right, well, we can take a swing at it. But you know it’s all about the Leviathans now, okay? They’re the ones we need to be hunting.
> 
> SAM:  
> Yeah, but, no – I mean, not right now. This one’s ours, Dean. It’s unfinished business, apparently.

Aaah more of the Winchesters as ghosts themselves.

* * *

> DEAN:  
> You know, every time we do this, I wonder if today’s the day. We walk up, flash our tin to a bunch of chompers pretending to be policemen. 

Continuity threats!

(but only threats, this does not actually happen and no one recognises them :P)

They ARE recognised for other reasons

> DETECTIVE:  
> Thought you guys might show up. It’s the drummer boys: agents, uh, Bonham… and Watts, right? 

But just for “themselves” in a more meta commentary way on their normal patterns… Of course their thing since Frank had a word is low-key generic names for bland white guys so such memorable patterns of naming really stand out and they’re kind of belatedly getting an example of how MUCH their quirky naming makes them stand out…

* * *

> NORA HAVELOCK:  
> Have you found Jeffrey yet?
> 
> DEAN:  
> Who?
> 
> NORA HAVELOCK:  
> The man who the demon possessed. The one you almost beat to death.

Whooops

they’re having real issues remembering this old case and this is a pretty negative episode towards their practices and habits - I think they’re genuinely meant to look bad and be cast as anti-heroes here, which is not really a thing that gets played with very much at this point in the show so it stands out (whereas Carver Era spends a LOT of time probing the hows and whys and justifications of their behaviour… If this was a season 10 episode using MoC Dean it would probably even be LESS critical since they’d have that to duck behind… But there is a focus on Dean as the torturer/exorcist this episode and there was nothing WRONG with him per say during season 4 aside from all the trauma, not like you could blame the Mark or any magical descent… In this case, linking season 4 to 7 of course also shows the real roots of Dean’s problems of how fucked up he was after Hell and how he was changed then and makes you think about how it all carries on to here.

* * *

> JEFFREY:  
> That’s right, I guess. Um, I’m picking her up today. I’m getting a dog – a rescue. I had to get her spayed and shots and stuff, but they said she’s ready.
> 
> FACILITATOR:  
> Jeffrey and I talked about this. He understands that pet ownership is a privilege, not a right. He’s gonna have to show the whole house that he can handle the responsibility.

if you look to your left you will see me hurling heavy books at Edlund

it’s such a cute doggie. :(

* * *

> JEFFREY:  
> And that’s what it’s all about, right, Alan? Handling it. 

of course that gets so much more sinister once you know *what* he’s handling. He’s like the poster boy worst coping strategies… Literally no one on this show can made as shitty a decision as “I’ma become a serial killer and try and get possessed by a bloodthirsty demon again” but essentially this season is about how everyone handles everything - poorly. And Jeffrey is the sort of worst example pitfall they edge very closely around (I mean the Winchesters have literally been seen as serial killers this season). The episode also aside from all the Dean parallels to how he’s been handling his terrible season 7 is where Sam’s “handling it” on the Hallucifer situation cracks

* * *

Sam and Dean jumping Jeffrey also is the sort of jump scare that makes them the monster in this situation.

* * *

> JEFFREY:  
> Marjorie Willis. She’s the next one on the list.
> 
> SAM:  
> List? What list?
> 
> JEFFREY:  
> The demon used to recite it all the time, like a grocery list. He burned it in my head – the names of all the women he was gonna kill.

I don’t think this comes up until season 8 with the episode with all the potential prophets but that’s unnervingly like the list of prophets that all the angels have to know… Intentional or not, Kevin’s intro also isn’t that far off at this point (and as far as I recall, is another Edlund episode… I do wonder NOW if that was something they were talking about at the time  but never found a way to slip that in… unless it was from that episode (but obviously no need to name all the next ones after Kevin at that point…) and I have forgotten. It’s 2 years since I’ve been down this part of the show :P

* * *

> JEFFREY:  
> …I had three smashed fingers, five teeth out, a broken wrist, nose, cheekbone, collarbone. I had to get 160 stitches. [He exhales and smiles.] Mugged. The doctor on duty said it looked like I got caught in the Spanish Inquisition.
> 
> DEAN:  
> And we’re the good guys.
> 
> JEFFREY:  
> They patched me up, mostly. But I lost my job, my health insurance. I just started to drink and drift, and I got lost. Had some kind of mental break.

YIKES… This is probably one of the harshest episodes about the consequences of the Winchesters on the world especially on this small scale way the focus isn’t always on when it comes to the meatsuits - in a way I think Jeffrey turning out to be the serial killer lets Dean take some comfort in how badly treated he was, even if it does seem like Jeffrey may have truly snapped and given into that darkness the demon saw only as potential in him AFTER he was beaten to hell? It was in him all along and the demon did a job awakening it, but… I think it is implied Jeffrey only really made the leap later.

(I am feel really weird about how he’s a Dean parallel and that “drink and drift” is our first real strong link between them… But a lot of what comes across as the extremely bleak, horrible Destiel parallel also works as a more straightforward Dean and Alastair parallel? I mean, same writer as On the Head of a Pin, so I’m not discounting that. Like, the “loved and lost and ended up drunk and depressed” side of it is the Destiel stuff for this season just because it relates so strongly to Dean’s situation, but much of the deeper stuff is really going back to season 4, where this episode’s roots are, and Dean’s conflict of THAT season that all came back to Alastair)

* * *

> DEAN:  
> So, let me guess. Drunk tank to psych eval to 72-hour forced hold to a nice long stay at an institution of their choice.
> 
> JEFFREY:  
> Yes.
> 
> DEAN:  
> It’s happened to friends of mine.

Is this another subtle mention of Martin? He’s been mentioned once recently as well

Dean’s face on “never, never tell” is so sad and wistful… this episode also brings up the conflict a lot between the “normal” world and hunters (and that’s a conflict of the season - from the way the Leviathans operate, Frank in a murky place especially with his intro where he’s not really a hunter of even believes in it all but is still useful and more on their isolated society wavelength, Krissy’s whole arc in her episode as a positive fluffy alternate…), how these structures just can’t cope with supernatural-related breakdowns (like, there’s no way they’d know to stop Jeffrey getting a dog because he intends to do evil black magic with it), but also how close people in the hunting community veer towards actually needing these services… Martin of course coming from the episode where Sam and Dean had their closest brush with it all until this season where Sam voluntarily gets himself held at a hospital because he genuinely needs the help - and even then they can do nothing about his problems. This scene cuts back to the library scene with Sam to show us just a small example of the sort of mental torment he’s going through.

* * *

Aw yay it’s this scary warehouse

I’ve never known how to check this but I feel like I watched an episode of Fringe roughly the same, like, week, as this episode that used the same set

The whole filmed in Vancouver thing.

* * *

This is one of those generic really dark ones with just like random metal and really unclear machinery in it… I know warehouses show up ALL THE TIME on this show, but if not specifically for this arc, then definitely they are thematically relevant when connected to it, since you can hop around like, 4x16, here, 9x23 for Dean’s serious demon-related stuff and start making connections about scary awful warehouses

* * *

Listen I know this is terrible, but Hallucifer is clearly, as a part of Sam’s own mind, speaking to him from his subconscious or something, picking up on the subtext or making connections LONG before Sam does, and he helps him solve this case in pretty record time once Sam realises there’s something wrong here. And that means I kind of really enjoy Sam n Lucifer Crime Solving Buddies as a dynamic even if it’s wildly unhealthy… Like, imagine if Mark Pelligrino had been free for the whole season and they’d felt like paying him and he’d been helping all along

(more to the point, I was pointing out his presence in Plucky’s but I mean SERIOUSLY imagine him on that case. Hah!)

(Also Sam was apparently doing a reasonably good job at ignoring him so it’s unlikely he had this level of influence on Sam until now so it would probably not work to retcon him in helping with EVERYTHING so far this season.)

(But like… maybe 3 more episodes here with him being surprisingly useful instead of trying to kill Sam?? :P)

* * *

We’re getting a long section here of Sam working out the problem while Dean is presumably unconscious. I like how it’s brave to split them up for SO long and first leave Sam out for ages and then leave Dean out as Sam catches up but, like, actually stopping to find out all the details before he goes rushing in…

* * *

*Sam takes another knock on the head*

Like, enough that Lucifer complains about it on his behalf - that’s when you know a character is getting hit on the head too often. :P

* * *

Ah yeah and then Lucifer starts egging Sam on to not do the sympathetic thing and to threaten the crying lady for info… Which Sam then does.

Sam’s kindness to these sorts of people they meet in the course of the job is so much part of his character, like, they used the same thing in season 6 to highlight something was up with Soulless!Sam… Sam threatening to get the info out of her ties into the ongoing theme of this episode showing just how brutal the Winchesters can be, of course here filtered through the fact that Lucifer is giving Sam pointers on what to do. So there’s a bit of a conflict on if this is a general commentary on them (since the conflict tracks back to season 4), or if it’s specifically meant to be about Sam and his problems with Hallucifer when the theme is focussing on him

* * *

> JEFFREY:  
> No one asked you to get involved, to save me, to save anyone.
> 
> DEAN:  
> What?

[does not compute]

And of course this is personal to Jeffrey but talking about saving people always goes further than that. This is challenging what Dean even does, and showing a very dark, bitter flipside to what happens to the people they save… Of course Slash Fiction went back to some old places full of people they’d saved and killed a load of people to balance out that good effect on the world, and 8x22′s conflict is all about killing the SPECIFIC good victims who would have wanted/asked to be saved, so there’s a theme in these two seasons especially about revisiting the past quite literally to explore the effect the Winchesters have on the world - and the effect that has on them. So of course to look at 8x22 in particular, this is a particularly bad blow just because they thought they saved Jeffrey (sarcastic “thank you” when they dropped him off outside the hospital completely mauled not withstanding)

Aaaand we get to the “Don’t think you deserve to be saved” thing which is the start of the Cas-related subtext going on here

* * *

> JEFFREY:  
> There’s a sound that comes from their brains. You know that? Only I can hear it, like an evil, little steam whistle. 

Ooh yeah, this is where that comes from. I’m very bad at paying attention to the incidental noises and music in things, but some people tracked a similar sound effect to this through Dean’s MoC arc a lot, like, I guess it’s just a murdery associated sound connected to evil thanks to this?

* * *

> NORA HAVELOCK:  
> Strongest summoning I’ve ever seen. Requires the blood of the exorcist who banished him 

I’ve always kind of liked the idea that exorcisms leave a trace in the exorcist… I mean for one thing they do them these days as such a matter of course thing - and it’s almost always so political about the demon plot that they’re not just exorcising to save people/get rid of demons (and KILL them) so actually going around using the title “exorcist” is kinda bad ass. But also I dunno it’s like if this builds up in your system from LOTS of demons it’s like gaining a power level? :P It feels even more interesting after 8x23 where, okay, because of a different spell tangentially related, curing a demon purified the “exorcist” in turn… Just the idea of it being a 2-way thing performing that spell.

… And again, it’s suggestive of their victories living on inside them except that this is deliberately undoing a success they’ve had and making a song and dance of doing so

* * *

Okay I forgot JUST how on the nose the dialogue was here, all the phrasing taken into account (since I remember pretty much everything shoddily paraphrased :P):

> JEFFREY:  
> Hey. I was there. I was depressed, Dean, because he was gone.
> 
> I was a wreck, an emotional shell, a drunk. I was suicidal.

I mean, yeah, watching this season through Destiel goggles what are you going to make of this? Edlund started off the season telling us Dean was suicidal right after he lost Cas, I’m pretty sure after Bobby forced the issue to try to talk to Dean about how he felt because of Cas when later prompted that confession… Fast forward here and we’re getting that in spades, along with a direct parallel to what Jeffrey calls the love of his life.

Jeffrey also seems to be implying a sort of pre-existing metaphorical death state for Dean, or at least that this desperation to save people has lead to what Jeffrey intends to make Dean’s death:

> JEFFREY:  
> I watched you torture an innocent man to get out a demon. Pretty charged situation… revealing. You guys talked about a lot, showed a lot of character. God… you were so desperate to fix the world back then. It kills you…
> 
> …that people keep getting hurt… and you just can’t stop it. Or I should say…
> 
> …it’s killed you, shouldn’t I?

I’m always interested in interpretations of Dean existing sort of metaphorically as a vengeful ghost - I mean this season the parallel with Bobby is ridiculous but it exists elsewhere

and of course more pushing the theme of not being able to save everyone, and how much that weighs on Dean… I can’t remember if I mentioned Sam, Interrupted to talk about more than just Martin but there is a strong link between these episodes thematically especially in their characters, when you remember how their breakdowns worked. Dean’s need to save everyone and how crushing that was was openly stated by a manifestation of his own psyche… And of course Sam’s rage issues were his main thing and here’s Hallucifer egging him on to violence, and giving him positive reinforcement when he does give in.

* * *

Puppy nooooooo

* * *

Dean looks like Jeffrey just crossed a line as well

* * *

And of course more Dean & dog subtext linking his blood with what I think is the puppy’s heart. :(

* * *

… the whole shaking building ominously rumbling with the impending arrival of the demon… And the abandoned dog cone of shame wobbling about in one of the most absurd moments of horror…

* * *

*grumbles resentfully about the puppy some more*

* * *

> DEMON:  
> He had all the raw material… just bubbling in there. All I had to do was loosen the lid on his jar, show him some practical know-how. 

This is not at all ominous with Lucifer whispering to Sam suggestions on how to behave… Of course nothing like this happens with Sam and he proves he’s good through and through even to the end in 7x17, but it’s interesting to talk about the darkness in him and what was averted just as much? Especially since I’m still thinking about how Hallucifer isn’t just a part of Sam in the obvious way, but 6x22 really did imply there’s some small Lucifer-esque part of Sam that’s just a permanent part of who he is?

(It’s Edlund in season 8 who floats the thing about how Sam always felt impure all his life as well… Sam’s struggle with all this does fascinate me. He’s so dark even while always remaining essentially good)

* * *

How did Sam even find the tiiiiime to draw the devil’s trap on the HUGELY HIGH CEILING while ALL THIS DRAMA was happening? Did he drag out a tall ladder? this is so unnecessary

* * *

> SAM:  
> …h-he was just… acting.
> 
> DEAN:  
> He was a psychopath, Sam. That’s what they do all the time, is act. Act like they’re normal, act like they’re not balls-to-the-wall crazy.

This is absolutely not extremely worrying commentary on these two after everything this episode has highlighted or turned over to examine the dark underneath of things >.>

* * *

*Dean faceplants into the bed*

Same.


	16. 7x16

Or: the… dangers of too much coffee consumption? 

… I got nothing :P

* * *

This episode has like 12 plotlines and somehow isn’t totally ridiculous? But I always forget what one it is because it starts as a normal MotW and then turns out to be main plot after 15 minutes… And like, EVERY main plot except for Cas’s return which it somehow completely forgets to foreshadow even in a way that would only make sense in hindsight… NOTHING. Howww. :P

* * *

The ballerina has a tiny pink ipod which I feel it is quite ridiculous that this is giving me Dean feels… Especially taking into account all the other stuff with Dean vs the ballet shoes here and then how he eventually clearly embraces this side of himself and gets the damn pink ipod and like… that’s not even a thing in this episode specifically re: the ipod and then Dean goes and gets himself one anyway??? LIKE WHO IS DEAN WINCHESTER

* * *

This always makes me kinda grateful I never pursued ballet past the “discover I am really clumsy and inelegant” phase but stories about cursed ballet shoes always intrigue me just on principle even if I am so not a dancer. Since these are just an incidental thing to get the Winchesters to town we get no origin on them so I like to think these could be shoes from all the old stories

* * *

Also wow the direction cutting the mopping with her dancing. A+ love it

* * *

> FRANK (on phone)  
> By the way, they opened another Biggerson in Butte. 

Oooh all the Biggersons from Cas’s gambit were because of Leviathan that’s actually really amazing. I mean obviously the chain was getting some presence over the years but this seems to imply that it had its growth explosion over the course of season 7?

I find it weirdly poetic that this is all connected in such a way across the seasons

* * *

Sam shows up with coffee. Dean’s hair is getting long at the back. I think he’s having a ~similar emotional breakdown let his hair get scruffy~ thing as Sam is except he won’t let it get more than an inch long even in Abject Despair

* * *

There WOULD be a ballet-loving kid stuck at work with her dad when magic ballet shoes are involved

She of course is colouring in with a pink pencil

This whole thing really is making my heart swell randomly for season 9 Dean and his fucking ipod I mean much was written on it then as a deconstruction of his masculine façade just this is the episode which apparently makes a huge deal out of pink & ballet being girly and Dean obviously having a deeper attachment than he’d like blah blah I am surprised by the Chekhov’s pink ipod in an episode dealing much more overtly the stuff discussed in metas that resulted from 9x14, like, he had serious forward progress here and then… backtracked so it was surprising in season 9? idk does Dean’s incidental characterisation ever really go anywhere aside from constantly subverting the surface layer in plot insignificant/subtextual ways? :P

* * *

This ballet kid is 100% more impressive than the dancer from the opening because she gets to kick Dean twice in the face and is so smol and honestly she is on screen for 2 minutes but she’s my favourite child actor on the show just because of that. :P 

* * *

I think Bob and Eugenie must have had a run in with a terrible realtor some time between season 6 & 7 because Buckleming killed off a real estate agent horribly in their first minutes of screen time and now Bob’s helping write this and he’s got the Leviathan real estate lady…

Again, well-acted as the slimiest horrible people in our society, so much you might think they’re horrible, but they’re acting horrible in a really human way, being petty about her over-burdened assistant opening her door for her when she’s more capable than him of doing it, just as a power display, etc. Like, you could think this isn’t going to be Leviathans even if we actually had Frank on screen so it might be a plot episode, and these are just normal humans?

* * *

Hahaha Sam didn’t even need to not touch the shoes despite walking around with them held at arms length on the end of a pen or something, because I totally saw his hand brush them when he dumped them on the side

they’ve totally got their sights on Dean and he still ends up grabbing them while Sam is distracted (He did grab them off the feet of the lil ballerina with his bare hands but literally nothing is made of that with explaining why the shoes like him)

What I love about this is that Dean can’t exactly deny the attraction he has to the shoes, or how he’s the 3rd victim after “prima ballerina” and “baby ballerina” and so even though the “you really did see Black Swan” moment has Sam looking all sorts of confused/amazed it’s not like he’s NEVER realised Dean has this softer side under the fragile and repeatedly loudly performed masculinity. He’s seen more than enough over the years that at least SOME of the various billions of subversions we’ve seen on screen have happened in front of him, so even while getting over the realisation that Black Swan really hit Dean right in the feels rather than because softcore porn in the middle of it, he pretty much just accepts that yeah okay Dean liked the ballet movie and now he’s susceptible. Meanwhile Dean isn’t in any place to argue with the magic shoes, so once they’re boxed up, he just makes a ridiculous ballet nerd joke to sweep this all under the rug and lean into the character reveal like it’s no big deal, manly dudes can like ballet - he doesn’t harp on it or make it weird past some really grumpy facial expressions and probably some serious betrayal aimed at the shoes :P

* * *

The badass hunter who collected all this stuff must have had one hell of a story. I mean did she retire and run a junk shop or did she always do it? Was it her Bobby and his scrapyard equivalent thing… Was she just an antiques dealer who discovered the hard way about trading in cursed objects and made it a career to collect and lock up the more dangerous stuff when she came across it? Like… extreme antiquing across the country before anyone gets hurt…

I want to know about her :P

* * *

Sam is visibly losing patience and angry with this guy even though he was clearly sheltered from the supernatural despite his mom’s career, at least so far as he was never given a reason to believe it was real until today. I think this is more Sam wearing thin because of the Lucifer thing, since he is apparently in every shot with Sam this episode, and Sam’s just blocking him out to varying degrees of effectiveness as the drama happens. The talky bits… less so than when Sam can run around.

* * *

Anyway… Ewwwwww horrible deaths.

* * *

> SAM  
> We got a, uh, gramophone sold to Brenda Gluck, 413 River Street, and a vintage gentlemen’s magazine sold to Peter Yankit, 27 Johnson Lane.
> 
> DEAN  
> Really?
> 
> SAM  
> Yeah.
> 
> DEAN  
> All right, we’d better split up. Why don’t you take the gramophone? I’ll handle the old rag.
> 
> SAM  
> I wouldn’t really “handle” it if I were you. Remember those shoes?
> 
> DEAN  
> Yeah, how could I forget?

Okay… first of all, how did Dean find the guy? That sounds like a made up address and name, unless it isn’t and that’s just really unfortunate in-universe/a meta joke >.>

Secondly… I almost feel like he would go after the vintage magazine just to reassert his masculinity? Like it says “gentleman’s” as the descriptor - that’s classy and manly! :P Almost like hoping he would still feel the same pull to it as the shoes or something even if he was well aware he wasn’t going to touch it and the outcome would be gross, just for the sake of it?

* * *

Didn’t Sam rescue a kid from this almost exact same thing with the gramophone in 3x14?

Although honestly I think those two scenes blur together in my head and that episode is one of my actual least favourite for reasons I can’t even remember except that I just really don’t like it

This one anyway is a pretty hilarious episode but this isn’t staged particularly well that the mother sees her son was about to stab her to death - she turns in time to see home invader grabbing her kid, and yet she acts like it was much clearer what happened and doesn’t kick Sam out for stranger danger reasons but actually lets him take the gramophone - and he doesn’t even show his badge or anything??

* * *

Aquarian stars on the curse boxes though! We have no idea how old the hunter was but she was presumably an old lady (her son is greying at the temples himself) and could have known at least second hand from hunters who actually knew and worked with the Men of Letters if not been old enough to interact with them herself?

I mean with the obvious note that we’re retconning this next season so those stars were MoL things not just random symbols like they clearly were here on first intent

* * *

Dean is left alone to bond with the guy who sold all the stuff, while Sam is off being grumpy and tired (since Sam was mostly grumpy with him anyway? Not in the mood for touchy feely stuff)

> DEAN  
> Hey, a little tip. Uh, feeling guilty ain’t gonna bring ‘em back. Best you can do is live your life the way that you think would make her proud. Or at least not embarrass the crap out of her. 

Actual really nice life advice on coping with loss from Dean! It’s nice to see that he’s got some good stuff floating around in his head as he’s been having such a tough time with loss this season, that this almost seems out of character for how much bad stuff he’s been told and how many allusions to depression he’s had. This episode has an overall pretty cheerful mood at least up to this point, and Dean always is better at saying than doing… 

(Ironically, Cas, who he feels very guilty about in turns with angry and bereaved, comes back next episode… Aaand we’re really not too many episodes from Bobby reappearing as a ghost either. This is Dean’s last episode dealing with death in an UNCOMPLICATED way where he really has just got to mourn them because that’s all the indication he has that he’s never going to see them again)

* * *

Dean very cleverly sees all the sold signs in the shop windows and puts together that SOMETHING is up… I dunno if he immediately realises Leviathan but Frank’s been telling him a non-stop stream of their weird acquisitions so he’s definitely in a place to recognise that odd property developments etc might point very directly to Leviathan activity without being at all paranoid or strange about it

* * *

And there’s the Leviathan confirmation after Dean joins the first dots. :D 

(To my surprise, we’re 20 minutes into the episode - it took longer than I realised to get everything together… I guess the first half is just really fun so it seems to whoosh by)

* * *

We never really know how much of the shapeshift affects the Leviathan or not, or if their ranks within the Leviathan hierarchy just match the human personalities they’re placed in (since this is a very organised plot of theirs) so I can’t tell if all the poor monsters made to possess a George form are incompetent because he was, or if Joyce is just being sent all the most dullard minions to help her because she pissed Edgar off and he’s sort of the head of HR (or… LR… Leviathan Resources) based on how he’s the man on the ground in many episodes and Dick’s second in command.

* * *

> JOYCE  
> Four, George. Just saying. So go to that nice barista on Main and get me a Grande non-fat no-whip white mocha, one pump sugar-free, double-shot espresso, 'kay? 

And again with the Leviathans vs human comforts… I can’t tell if they JUST have an over-developed sense of taste or if they really are enjoying it OR if Joyce is just abusing power to make George obey her because she needs to assert her rank over him as the Important Leviathan In Charge

* * *

Aaand there’s Sam ordering his “triple red-eye” coffee that teenaged Sam used to order to stay awake when researching

I swear that much caffeine when you’re smol is supposed to stunt your growth but whatever. Azazel implied Sam is tall because demon blood so I guess he could take it

* * *

In any case, the Lucifer plotline and the Leviathan one weirdly overlap here in one of the more hilarious moments of a main plot related character bumping into a Winchester just on the street

like I mean that never happened by accident in season 5 with Lucifer :P

I do find it funny that after all that fuss about not bringing attention to themselves, it was only indirectly that they even drew attention to themselves 

* * *

I like how George is too scared to just grab Sam and phones in to check before eating Sam

> JOYCE   
> We have a chain of command here, George. You see a Winchester, you don’t eat him. You tell me, and  _I_  eat him. What do you think, I’m gonna tell Dick, “I think he ate him, but I didn’t see it”?

That word is beginning to lose all meaning

* * *

around this point in the season I just start thinking of the Leviathans as Pac Man

* * *

Gratuitous Dean x Pie moment here for… no reason? Does he get to eat pie?

There is no way Dean gets to eat pie in this scene

Yeah he gets distracted by Frank telling him about digging down deep to all the Dick. Dean walks away from his pie to continue his obsession with Dick, because metaphors, revenge plot, etc.

I mean not sure what his ~slice of pie~ would be considering current plot situation - not like they have a choice not to be doing this, even if Dean is getting paralleled with Frank’s obsession for now and Bobby’s literal vengeance issues later. Probably just general commentary on this mindset being bad than a structured direction?

* * *

> DEAN   
> Yeah. We’re lookin’ at a big, old giant nesting doll of Dick, as far as property sales go. 

I am pretty sure he said that to get a rise out of Sam (7x12 still in recent memory :P) but rather than going for the Dick jokes, Sam is still shaken and weird from his near sleep disaster/Lucifer’s spirited attempt to murder him. Dean is just trying to cheer him up! :P

* * *

> JOYCE   
> Well, not exactly Oscar-worthy, but… I was convinced. Not that it matters, because you don’t have any more lines. 

Still wondering who’s writing the story in season 7 - TFW were in season 6, and Cas most of all. Cas as the failed author God died to bring in the Leviathans so it’s vaguely interesting that there’s a line from one of them scripting things. More interesting they’re brought down by the Word of God in the end - but of course that heralds the roots of Metatron as the failed HACK author-God :P Thoughts for when me and Sam aren’t competing for Most Tired

* * *

Okay, George is pretty done too. :P Least surprising betrayal of the century. Also filed under Lizzy’s theory about the Leviathan as self-consuming. Plus, cut off the head etc: we haven’t had much of a clue about HOW self-consuming (metaphorically rather than literally and I hate that that needs clarifying) they are, and in a way I think this episode is the only one that really highlights internal strife and how the lower orders of Leviathans function away from Head Office although I suppose Edgar making Dr Sexy destroy the failed experiments because Dick was coming only for Dick to bib Dr Sexy because they weren’t supposed to do that is a point of data too. This one is much more obvious… Joyce is just as useless in some ways - not working well with others, too quick to kill, poor forward planning…

* * *

And then George’s motivation was also to EAT Joyce ugh :P

these monsters >.>

* * *

George is kinda fun without Joyce around oppressing him… He grows more of a backbone at least :P 

* * *

> DEAN   
> Listen to me, you gooey son of a bitch. You’re gonna tell us what you’re building here, or I’m gonna wash your mouth out with soap. 

Honestly I enjoy the Leviathans so much because out of context what a fucking terrible insult/threat

* * *

> GEORGE   
> 'Cause we’re only here to help.
> 
> […]
> 
> DEAN   
> Monsters cure cancer. A sentence I never thought I’d say. Why does it make me so nervous?

(It’s really unclear if they killed George or not tbh I think they did :P) He looks so untrustworthy in that last shot of him AND it’s obviously not the full story because Leviathans are only doing it to make everyone more edible.

Which means this is a lie by omission, which is thematically relevant to a lot of “not the whole story” moments on the show, which I am leaving a mental note to myself to remember anything in the morning when I proof read this but otherwise ??? it is a thing that happens a lot

[good morning. Morning!Lizzy has just noticed that talking about not getting the full story re: curing cancer also answers my question about if Sam beheaded George or not :P I’m go out on a limb and say those two “not the full story”s cancelled each other out.]

* * *

Anyway the song of death and destruction (from 1x22) plays while we’re at the season 1 callbacks this season pushes hard. Since Frank is totes dead.

Music even seems to get louder in his place so was it playing inside his place?

He definitely seemed to take a few chunks out of however many Leviathan came for him before they got him >.>

* * *

Aaaaand Cas is back next episode YAY. (Killing off one helpful plot character to bring back another, better loved one?? :P At this point Frank’s death is taking away ANOTHER thing from Dean and FINALLY the universe is going to give something back, at whatever price that means, probably because Frank just wasn’t that much of a loss by himself even if he could be a final straw kind of loss… Dean had been pinning much of his obsession for revenge for Bobby on him so that cause is much more adrift until Bobby is back to enforce it for him… which takes all of 2 episodes :P)

Without looking, my 7x17 tag is probably 20 pages long just of those 2 stares Dean n Cas share when they’re first looking at each other again. 

Mmmm.


	17. 7x17

Or: … guys I think Dean might be in love with Cas?

* * *

Like one of the first words in the recap is “Cas”

mmm

* * *

How many episodes start with Sam running?

This is definitely ending up thematic about him not being able to run away from his problems or something I mean seriously.

(6x22, 7x14, 7x17… Sam running away from dangerous manifestations either of or from his own mind… In all cases they catch up to him. I almost wonder if the clowns were just to rule of three this since this is the end of that arc for Sam)

* * *

random people are so good at waiting casually for Lucifer to deliver all his lines before they talk to Sam despite not knowing he’s there

* * *

This opening has always seemed kind of weird to me - I mean it’s meant to show Sam’s total desperation, but like, idk why he and the drug dealer go fall asleep together in the rusty version of Cas’s car… They could have just… not shown that guy still with Sam at that point… More for the dealer’s motivation for doing that than Sam’s. 

Anyway then Sam gets hit by a car and bounces onto train tracks and is left for dead by the title card (this is one of Dean’s deaths from Mystery Spot and Sam definitely goes through a sort of symbolic rebirth this episode) - railwaylines are always symbolic, I think… transition? change? Idk. Cas was by them in 9x09 telling Dean he had his grace back, for example. I don’t think it’s just a coincidence that the sketchy drug buying place Sam stumbled into was by train tracks - this episode is very important moving on for him, even if my normal Cas-addled reaction to this episode is all about him :P

* * *

Special guest star: Misha Collins 

“it’s fine” says the doctor, waving impatiently at the credit on the screen blocking his desk

no. no it is not.

* * *

> DEAN enters the room.
> 
> HALLUCIFER  
> Ah, Mr. Helpless. Pull up a six-pack, buddy.

that is entirely 100% rude and it is a good thing he didn’t hear you,  _buddy_. 

(Dean vs saving people… Dean feeling so helpless about Bobby’s death… And of course a comment on his alcoholism as a result of all this sort of stuff, all packed into one comment. Efficient. :P)

* * *

> DEAN  
> Sam, I’m gonna find you help.
> 
> SAM  
> I don’t think it’s out there, Dean.
> 
> DEAN  
> We don’t know that.

*internally squeeing because Dean is talking about Cas and he doesn’t even know it*

Sam goes on to bring up Faith (hey, Gamble episode!) just as a reminder of when saving each other doesn’t work and comes with a huge price tag. Since that’s one of my big pre-Destiel Destiel episodes, of course I should point out that it’s stuff like this from THIS episode, re-doing Faith in a small way but with Cas as the healer, that makes Faith SO interesting to re-watch. Some of Roy’s dialogue even echoed the sort of stuff that 4 years down the line Cas would say to Dean in their early conversations. Dean was, then, questioning whether he deserved to be saved, after all.

This episode is kind of incongruous in THEIR narrative as it lets Sam and Dean both off the hook for saving Sam, and lumps it all onto Cas… I guess I have mixed feelings about this just because of the STRONG messages about consequences over and over - before and after - and how those consequences here are still used to keep Cas off the playing board for the rest of the season… But then on many other levels I’ve always really liked the story of Cas’s redemption and return to form, told over this and the Purgatory arc & season 8… sooo… I guess while the end of the episode falls flat for the Winchesters when when it comes to consequences or lessons about saving each other (aka what is it really worth), in the greater scheme it definitely serves one of my favourite arcs and the no question about it Cas has to fix Sam for himself as much as for Sam thing does its own work when you look at it from Cas’s POV?

I mean Cas being benched IS the consequence of this, but he takes it so willingly and he HAS to for this redemption arc to work, that I’ve always had very mixed feelings about what was accomplished here - and I think that same flat feeling actually is something expressed by them at the end of this episode, so there is that I guess…

(I suppose I need to watch the rest to comment on it but this reminder of Faith in the text kind of sent me down this path :P)

* * *

> SAM  
> …Cas warned you about all the crap it would –
> 
> DEAN  
> Screw Cas! Quit being Dalai frickin’ Yoda about this, okay? [punches his hand with his fist] Get pissed!

Also, of course the arc Dean and Cas take the rest of this season is Dean’s anger with Cas… Which I think realistically went away when Cas died and only reappears when Cas is there for Dean to actually talk to, as pretty much all the Cas mentions and allusions focussed much harder on the loss than Dean’s anger, but if he’s about to come back, ~of course~ Dean can’t welcome him back with open arms, all being forgiven thanks to all this mourning putting their relationship in context… It’s got to still be weird just for there to be conflict.

As with everything Sam and Cas are fixed up, relationship-wise, far quicker than Dean and Cas, where there has to be a serious subplot with the state of their relationship on the line. Cas fixing Sam immediately takes this damage and puts it in the past, and Sam is always willing to forgive Cas, and never makes it weird again so far as I can recall, and so the fact that this was done removes any structured emotional arc between them, and they just share a few stray conversations through the rest of the season. Meanwhile, this line is now establishing the new direction the Dean n Cas stuff will be filtered through, that is, Dean’s anger and Cas’s attempts for better or worse to redeem himself (as per some of his last sensible words to Dean before the whole… overtaken by Leviathan and exploded in a lake thing)

I mean in context it’s more like Dean is just giving Sam a pep talk and telling him never mind the warnings Cas gave DEAN not to do the thing he did which lead to Sam here, focussed more on convincing Sam to keep fighting rather than actually saying much about Cas (except I assume a knee jerk reaction from Dean not liking to be reminded that Cas has apparently won this argument from beyond the grave) but I mean once Cas is back, this will transform into the dynamic between them.

* * *

> SAM  
> [sighs] I’m too tired. This is what happens when you throw a soul into Lucifer’s dog bowl. And you think there’s just gonna be some cure out there? 

*vague season 11 worry for Cas*

He’ll be fine… *she says nervously*

* * *

Query: is that Rufus’s cabin that Dean is doing his depressing research in? The sofa has a grey blanket over it. (Aaaaah I shouldn’t have mentioned season 11 now I’m just thinking about Dean wrapping Cas in a blanket)

I meant to just say that it made the sofa look much more depressing without its regular blanket over the back

* * *

> HALLUCIFER  
> But it’s – it’s so nice chatting. Sam, I hate these one-sided conversations. Come on, buddy. [raises fists] Engage. Sam? You… me… locked ward. Is it me, or is this just like the Cage? 

When parallels aren’t even subtle

how do you even work with that to make any deeper analysis :P

* * *

Anyway Dean has drunk like a whole six pack while researching

shhh Lucifer

* * *

Oh no just hearing “Emmanuel” makes my heart go faster

* * *

> MACKEY  
> Heard the best way to get to him is through his wife, Daphne, out in Colorado? So, I go. Tell her I’m going blind. It’s true. My right eye’s burnt out. She says, “Go home. He’ll come.” So, I go. I set every trap, every test in the book.
> 
> DEAN  
> That’s what I would have done.

Yes, you did. In a barn once a long long time ago when you first met him :’)

* * *

Oh no I forgot that this episode does not screw around we’re 10 minutes in and Dean has just magically appeared at Emmanuel’s door, no driving time required.

*not ready*

Dean’s driving a black car which is not the Impala and looks nothing like it except they’re both old I guess, except she doesn’t look it. I do wonder if Cas could have been knocked back to himself at the sight of it, if not Dean. :P

* * *

Like, I mean, mini Swan Song parallel for him

they’re not totally above doing that - look at 11x14 :P

* * *

> DEMON  
> [laughs] Please. What have you done for him lately? Roman’s head on a plate? No? Whatever Emmanuel is, Crowley’s gonna want him – a lot more than he wants you these days. So… 

hahaha Dean/Cas/Crowley love triangle GO AWAY NO ONE LIKES YOU *wafts at it with a book*

I mean I guess it’s not actually the “dynamic” at work, except that it’s talking about them wanting each other, and we are in a brief respite from the rest of it :P

… except season 10 has tainted literally every Crowley interaction with Dean so this is just the world we live in now

* * *

The cruellest thing about this reintroduction is that thanks to Cas’s terrible fashion sense clinging to the trenchcoat for ever and ever and ever, we can’t really recognise the actor by the butt when Misha in too-tight trousers is shown on screen as our way to meet him again, like how a feet up pan of Dean in tight jeans would be extremely obvious

* * *

*watches Dean realise who he’s looking at*

*whimpers very quietly while holding my hands over my mouth*

I mean LOOK at his stupid shocked tearful face. He has just been run over by a truck, never mind Sam getting hit by a car at the start of the episode.

(… I mean… Dean and Sam’s trauma is paralleled all season and it stems from a root source for both of them, only this just makes everything WORSE…

I think it’s fair to parallel the hit by a car thing as a serious comment on Sam and Dean’s feelings this episode :P)

(Sam says the pain from being hit with the car is like a 3 or something because his pain tolerance is so fucked up from this job… Can we say the same about Dean?)

* * *

*Dean walks into the room where Emmanuel is untying his wife with the sort of expression suggesting no*

* * *

I was kinda joking about my 7x17 tag being mostly just their faces in this section but there IS a lot of discussion I’ve already had about Daphne and Emmanuel, so I think this is one of the first times in the rewatch I feel like I’m hitting “current” canon aka stuff that really gets hauled out and discussed in fandom on the regular, aside from some random old stuff like the soulmates fight or the siren episode… 

* * *

This dialogue is kinda empty like making small talk about demons (I didn’t know that was possible until this episode), but oh my god the expressions back and forth, the weird hesitance for Dean to shake Emmanuel’s hand, the PAIN of having to reintroduce himself… This is all officially awful. In a way the light dialogue is really just letting us focus on how emotionally shaken Dean is by the reveal, letting us stew feeling his same confusion and surprise…

Ugh there’s nothing to say about this that hasn’t been repeatedly attached to the billions of gifs of this scene :P

* * *

I do like the irony of how the doctor when Sam asks about Marin says that it was no accident she got there - unlike Sam. In the same scene where Lucifer is mocking him for being the guy who saved the world and now look at him… Of course it IS no accident Sam’s ended up here - it was a VERY long process started at the beginning of time and planned right up to Judgement Day, taking Sam’s whole life up in it, and the suffering Sam’s done since is effect after effect from that universe-long Destiny that landed on his head.

No accident indeed.

* * *

Ahaha it is something else entirely to see a gifset out of context than to drop in on Dean glancing over at Cas and asking about his wife as the ice breaker to having Emmanuel on a road trip.

This being their third important car trip - the Peace or Freedom talk, the “if you get in real trouble” talk and now here, a triptych of DeanCas Important Car Talks (to… go with the triptych of Sam Chased By His Own Psyche? This episode is wrapping up a lot of themes… Season 7 does pretty much end with a blank slate for season 8 because it cleans up after itself so thoroughly - in a way the Destiel drama taking up so much of season 8 is just a natural result of it being one of the few loose ends left with an obvious amount of mileage still in it - even the bro drama was reset with a fresh fight unrelated to season 7).

Anyway now we’re in emotional clear up mode from the fall out of the 5x22-6x20 conflict, they’re talking on a much more personal level. Cas CAN’T engage with the main plot, Dean’s not bringing it to him, so it’s all the personal stuff instead

Starting with Dean being weird about Cas’s wife but of course the conversation evolves and gets deep 

* * *

I just love Emmanuel’s naive sincerity so much? He’s bringing the same thing to the character as Cas, but in such a blank slate way. Which means this sort of comes across perfectly as the way Cas would respond emotionally without any of Cas’s baggage, and I think it’s less important to us and more important to Dean - that he understands what the deal is with Cas instinctively before even getting the story on how Daphne found him… He’s exactly aware of who Cas really is of course, and he KNOWS Cas can fix Sam - that he promised to twice already and hasn’t… It’s not like he’s USING Emmanuel to get someone with angel powers to Sam to fix him, I think he at least instinctively knows how this has to go.

I mean it was Dean who said “accidents don’t happen accidentally” :P

Anyhow, his discussion with Cas is sort of exploring this - quietly sounding out things about Cas and testing their own relationship on this neutral ground

for example:

> EMMANUEL/CASTIEL  
> Well, it’s my life. And it’s a good life.
> 
> DEAN  
> Yeah, well, what if you were some kind of… I don’t know…bad guy?
> 
> EMMANUEL/CASTIEL  
> Oh, I… don’t feel like a bad person.

* * *

(Also aargh Cas defaulting to healing even when he has no idea who he is. Cas always defaulting to healing people. CAS JUST ALWAYS TRYING TO HELP)

* * *

I’ve always liked Marin in this episode… She’s got that sort of darkness about her but also the wry sense of humour about it… (hm I wonder who she reminds me of :P)

Thinking of that:

> SAM  
> It’s your brother?
> 
> MARIN  
> Yes. It sucks… when it’s your dead brother saying… kill yourself to be with him… or he’ll do it for you.

Once again, Winchesters paralleled to a vengeful ghost, in this case literally an unhealthy sibling relationship where one is dead and has gone vengeful ON the idea of having the other sibling join them in death. The Winchesters work in reverse, keeping the other on the plane of the living as often as possible, but with the same basic effects that means you can make this parallel about them. Like I was saying, this episode manages to shift consequences to Cas, so for all the flirting with bro drama, Gamble Era literally manages to avoid any fight about consequences in the long term, as Cas takes it on voluntarily as part of his own arc. It’s almost like the threat of clingy Winchesters doing something stupid such as selling their soul or FORCING Cas to do it, is the real tension in the episode, only the way it shakes out there is nothing for them to fight about by the end of the episode. It safely explores this darkness in their relationship through proxies and threats, rather than create the drama out in the world… But it does serve at least as a reminder that the darkness is IN them and they are liable to do stuff like that…

* * *

> DEAN  
> Spiritual? Okay. Someone did this to him. 

Once again, Dean testing Cas - he has a notable pause between “okay” and the accusation… Like he was mulling it over and maybe/maybe not meant to tell Cas, and maybe also not right away, until he found better words, but the untactful way just spills out and now they have to talk about this… It’s like Dean who can never normally talk about the big things straight up, finds it so much easier to do this with a Cas who can’t argue back from a place of Cas?

> EMMANUEL/CASTIEL  
> You’re angry.
> 
> DEAN  
> Well, yeah. Dude broke my brother’s head.
> 
> EMMANUEL/CASTIEL  
> He betrayed you, this dude. He was your friend?
> 
> DEAN  
> Yeah, well, he’s gone.
> 
> EMMANUEL/CASTIEL  
> Did you kill him? I sense that you kill a lot of people.

So here Dean’s anger with Cas is put back on the table officially for basically the first time since he died, what with being around to be a target of it again. Interestingly, Dean (bound by the limitations of this conversation mostly) puts all the pain onto Cas breaking Sam’s head, so the fact he fixes it this episode does theoretically resolve Dean’s issue with him, except that Dean stays angry for the rest of the season, so underneath that is a whole bundle of his own PERSONAL issues with Cas that are where much of the pain lies.

And of course Emmanuel showing how intuitive he is about this, brings up betrayal and death, understanding that Dean cares a great deal for this dude even before there’s any real clue in the conversation that Dean did care for Cas. Basically, he reads some invisible subtext that tells him that it’s way more complicated than Dean is explaining… I think Emmanuel being able to fix things of a “spiritual” nature is reading Dean too, almost wondering if he can be healed when he sees a very obviously broken person. Of course these two things are tied up together, but he can only fix Dean’s issues as Cas and he can only do that when they actually TALK but this is I suppose Cas unknowingly sounding out the talk he needs to have with Dean too… 

* * *

honestly season 7 may be a secret fave season just because the entire main conflict is eventually resolved by “Dean and Cas need to talk to each other” like what sort of meta nonsense is this? :P

* * *

*quietly cries about the rest of their conversation*

> DEAN  
> Honestly, I-I-I don’t know if he is dead. I just know that this… whole thing couldn’t be messier. You know, I used to be able to just shake this stuff off. You know, whatever it was. It might take me some time, but… I always could. What Cas did… I just can’t – I don’t know why.
> 
> EMMANUEL/CASTIEL  
> Well, it doesn’t matter why.
> 
> DEAN  
> Of course it matters.
> 
> EMMANUEL/CASTIEL  
> No. You’re not a machine, Dean. You’re human. Your friend’s name was Cas? That’s an odd name.

Dean telling Cas that something about the stuff between them is different - that it hit him worse, that he’s affected by it in a way that nothing has ever affected him before. I’m fine. :) :) 

Once again, I feel like saying that killing Cas off supposedly for good accidentally opened the door for this all - the whole weight of this season being a season about Destiel through this argument and Cas’s death - that this was obviously never planned and there was no way they could have known that this series of seemingly small decisions about what aspects of the relationship to explore just for the sake of some on-screen drama for Dean to grapple with could have led them here, but also that I am eternally grateful that once they sucked it up and wrote Cas back into the story, they were actually respectful of the relationship and what it had grown into over the end of season 6 and across season 7? That the endless implications while Dean was mourning of just how bad it was (to use their own phrasing about it :P) because of Cas weren’t just swept away? Whatever your interpretation is on it, Dean wallowed in this betrayal and it was a huge thing in his life, and now Cas is back it’s STILL a huge thing, and from that we get this exploration of their relationship as something so profound between them, that whatever Cas said about it at the start of season 6 seems so trivial now in comparison of them by season 8 being loved and lost and loved again?

* * *

Ugh anyway, this is also the rule of 3 on bad advice in cars, except a subversion here this time that Bobby and Eliot Ness diminished Dean’s pain and basically ENCOURAGED him to be the machine, and Cas sees right through Dean, right into their shared arc about this stuff, and tells Dean it’s okay to be human.

WHICH of course as I said at the end of 6x20, Cas officially was taken off the “peace or freedom” internal struggle and onto the “angel or human” one, starting from a sort of not even 0 on the scale but going right out the far end into the negatives as he took on the role of God… Now he’s here and has been living a human existence of a couple of months, unknowingly, and of course is still extremely Other and alien and broken in an angelic way for the rest of the season… But his own words about “not a machine” do resonate with his own life just because he has always been a Dean mirror on this theme of them as soldiers (in fact, Cas as the machine is a more obvious theme, when for Dean it’s expressed more as him being a weapon, or dog imagery) and so we’re also now in the little baby steps towards Cas and humanity, which doesn’t blow up really until the end of season 8, despite being a part of his conflict with Dean throughout and especially towards the end.

* * *

*me trying to write about Dean: veers off into talking about Cas. Me trying to talk about Cas: veers off into talking about Dean*

* * *

Anyway yeah then Dean thinks Cas saved him only it turns out to be Meg because of course we have the Dean/Cas/Meg love triangle (which… now I think about it, pretty much directly is supplanted by Dean/Cas/Crowley love triangle once she dies in season 8 because that’s roughly how long I recall I was thinking of the respite for that one I mentioned earlier :P There’s just always someone else there, even very quietly in the background just existing when it comes to Meg - she doesn’t even actually pose a threat in the way Crowley does if we go with “he was your boyfriend first” and I think she kinda gets it… but narratively anyway she’s existing linked to Cas and at least poses a misdirect about Cas’s feelings even if she’s not really utilised narratively as a false romantic lead in - and I can’t believe even a year later that i have to type this - the extremely overt way Crowley was)

ANYWHO obvious substitution of Meg for Cas here - she pretty much third wheels them the rest of the way because they were making such good tentative progress on understanding each other and Dean pretty much confessed his FEELINGS to this safe proxy version of Cas and we can’t have any more of that so put someone between them Dean won’t feel comfortable talking in front of and who can highlight all the MISCOMMUNICATION and LIES instead :P

* * *

I like how Meg says rumours are starting to fly about Emmanuel when Bobby had to reach through the veil to prod Dean in his direction because no one else would tell him (makes you wonder if Bobby - while he was alive - was keeping his own ear out like he wouldn’t believe Cas was gone for good, and had heard this rumour but was holding off telling Dean because he was worried about what it would do?)

> MEG  
> Imagine my surprise when I track him down, and he’s snuggled up with  _you._  And he’s the spitting image of poor, dead Castiel. So, Dean, what’s poor, dead Castiel doing in that junker out there? 

See, she sees Destiel and isn’t above making the jokes and implications, even with her own soft spot for Cas :P I don’t think she cares, tbh, either because she doesn’t think Dean is an actual threat - or overconfidence that he isn’t - or just because love triangles are boring and she doesn’t care about someone’s affection being split so long as she gets some of it… :P

She DOES parallel her situation to Dean’s with using Cas, though, despite her needs being broadcast as needing a weapon and not disagreeing with that assessment from Dean (and backed up by her later comments about Cas away from him later in the season) while Dean is all full of emotional need - I think the “he was your boyfriend first” thing fobbing Cas off on Dean comes back to this established rivalry for Cas’s attention, only as the back and forth with Dean and Emmanuel when they were alone showed, it was about BOTH of their needs and the issues between them and so Meg can’t win in this struggle though she asserts a strong lead in this episode… the emotional story comes down to stuff between Dean and Cas and so she can’t compete with how fucked up about the other they are, hence ~handing Cas back~. Anyway, because of that much more complicated give and take between Dean n Cas it’s hard to say Dean is JUST using Cas or that any motivations can be simple. Like, just the fact he was willing to start talking about all the hard topics with “Emmanuel” shows that it’s not ~just~ about getting him to Sam, whatever he says.

* * *

I mean, Emmanuel looks totally freaked out and uncomfortable about Meg even after the “explanation” for why a demon is working with them, when she tries to get close and flirty with him, and him intuitively feeling stuff like all the betrayal which was never mentioned, I can’t help but think he reads Meg’s intentions as clearly as Dean’s and doesn’t like them… Cas I think just feels more tolerant of her because obviously he remembers her but also he’d have a greater sense of control and no reason to be afraid of “just” a demon - Dean can leave Cas with Meg at the end because even if he doesn’t trust her, he’s pretty sure Cas can handle her if she tries to hurt him or make him do anything he doesn’t want to so Dean doesn’t worry about that even with their now LONG history with Meg.

* * *

I like Hallucifer just laughing at Marin when she tells Sam for him how all his hair is going to fall out if he doesn’t sleep… He’s like yep I can’t think of worse torture right now, you have the floor, kid.

> MARIN  
> And one day he started yelling, and I tried to run but the door was locked. And when I turned around, the whole room was on fire. I barely got out. How can you help me? 

Obvious Winchester parallel is obvious… Quietly calling back the cold open of the Pilot just in dialogue.

There’s so much season 1 in this season

* * *

Awkward family roadtrip is awkward - that cut to the car was basically just to show us Meg third wheeling and getting between them, and to establish that because of that there’s no further important dialogue

* * *

Anyway on with the ghost drama: Marin’s brother blows out all the lights progressively getting closer to Sam and Marin - a 4x01 parallel? Heralding Cas returning to save Sam and finish the job he fucked up at the end of season 5 when he pulled Sam out of hell? idk :P

* * *

It’s definitely their easiest ghost hunt by time spent on it :P

* * *

Ewww Sam is falling to bits… Can’t believe they implied his hair was falling out

RUDE

* * *

*takes a deep breath to watch the trenchcoat return scene*

* * *

Meg and Dean have Emmanuel between them as they argue in the subtext about using Cas to clear the demons - I like that framing

* * *

> MEG  
> Sam’s in there. I know you’re enjoying the double dip with your old pal, but –
> 
> DEAN  
> You think it’s that cut and dry? Really?

interesting that Meg even thought Dean was prioritising Cas over Sam… And of course this is way more complicated than she was making it out to be - another insinuation of Dean n Cas spending quality time (and… undermining her earlier comment a little that she was insinuating Dean was JUST using Cas?).

> DEAN  
> You know what he did. And you want to tell him and just hope that he takes it in stride? He could snap. He could… disappear. Who knows? 

despite Dean stating earlier that he is angry, this DOES come across much more as concern for Cas than concern about losing a chance to save Sam - of course that implied as a reason not to let it happen, but there are a lot of layers to this and it’s nice that Dean is even admitting that :P

* * *

> EMMANUEL/CASTIEL  
> Why wouldn’t you tell me? Being an angel – it sounds pleasant.
> 
> DEAN  
> It’s not, trust me. It’s bloody, it’s corrupt. It’s not pleasant.

:( Dean of course having never liked angels… But this is also important setting up all of Cas’s conflict with Heaven for the next… ever… so far on the show. 

It’s weird how much history there is in that tiny exchange (I guess there always is with them) - Dean had to talk Cas away from Heaven before (in 4x22) and now in a way he’s doing the same here. Telling Cas that this ideal of Heaven as his home is not perfect, and that his family is, frankly, terrible (oh god Cas’s face when he senses angels have shown up in 7x21… I’m not going to make it) is almost trying to talk Cas away from it again, convince him that he’s better off not knowing… If I wanted to make this really awful I could [parallel this to the Watched Him Rake Leaves moment](http://elizabethrobertajones.tumblr.com/post/141381510973), where Cas chooses not to bring Dean back into the fight, and Dean here is trying to preserve this weird “normal” life Emmanuel had or at least protect Cas from himself and that having the same effect of maintaining Cas as being passive and out of the fight… But it’s not Dean’s choice to make, and since they’re face to face when it happens, it gets made in the way that brings Cas back into the fight. So if it was a parallel to that, it’s subtly righting one of the early wrongs that got them into this mess by letting the gesture repeat between them but playing out differently

* * *

Oh no Dean and Cas standing next to each other

like… shoulder to shoulder.

Dean having a moment when Cas says he doesn’t know how to ride a bike either because dammit he’s missed this

Dean looking Cas up and down and being alarmed when Cas looks directly at him catching him checking him out 

:’)

I gotta cling to something, we’re about to watch the Worst Montage Ever

(and by that I mean best but I need something to hug :P)

*sits here cursing how a 3 clip recap of Who Cas Is inevitably ends up being a Hey Look Destiel montage because all his key moments were with Dean up until it had to recap the betrayal*

* * *

It’s Caaaas *touches his face gently*

Doing season 7 concurrent with Lucifer!Cas in season 11 is the worst

don’t do it

pick a season with ALL the Cas

* * *

*Cas apparently is not interested in me squealing happily to see him again because he just stomped off*

> DEAN  
> If you remember, then you know you did the best you could at the time.
> 
> CASTIEL  
> Don’t defend me. Do you have any idea the death toll in Heaven? On Earth?

:’) Look at Dean saying that about Cas! Maybe he just needs to argue with someone with an opposing viewpoint to defend Cas… Dean stays angry with him, of course, but at least here for like 3 minutes he thinks he gets to hash this out with actual Cas just as Cas, and I think Cas being more inaccessible later is a setback… Also I don’t think Dean appreciates the attitude >.>

Anyway for now he’s trying to rally the troops to save Sam and if that means setting aside his anger and actually agreeing with Cas from 6x20 at least in intent even if he’ll not agree with the actions, then… so be it :P

* * *

Meanwhile Cas probably does know he has to fix Sam, but there’s SO MUCH to do, and Cas is great at running away from his problems and not doing any of them (… #same) - the conflict in 7x23 especially bubbles over about Cas doing this and it’s getting over that which leads to Dean n Cas actually really truly reconciling. 

* * *

Also they leg it away from Meg and have this out actually in private for now

* * *

> CASTIEL  
> We didn’t part friends, Dean.
> 
> DEAN  
> So what?
> 
> CASTIEL  
> I  _deserved_  to die. Now, I can’t possibly fix it… So why did I even walk out of that river?
> 
> DEAN  
> Maybe to fix it. Wait.

… okay so this goes over the exact same emotional ground as the 2 lines of dialogue before that. But yeah, Dean “so what”s that, saying they can be friends again, if only Cas didn’t stop trying to run away from his problems (Dean has real issues with Cas leaving and running away >.> That’s their season 8 emotional strife right the way through) and Cas for the first time mentions how he felt he should have died which also is part of a looong theme of Cas feeling this way - 8x08 goes right there, and season 11′s terrible decision comes from that same low opinion of himself… I suppose with this long view on it, it’s hard to blame anyone for making Cas say yes to Lucifer when his entire redemption arc has been toeing the line with Cas and suicidal ideation and assuming his life can be traded to make things right - to let Dean escape from Purgatory, to say yes to Lucifer, taking on Sam’s hell trauma… Cas has been self-punishing the whole time? By now it’s just something he does and I really hope (but not sure what my expectations are for it) that his PTSD established in season 11 would be addressed because essentially I think he probably could have said yes to Lucifer tracking right back to this trauma just because even if he actually isn’t to blame for the current situation, he’s practically conditioned himself to respond to insurmountable problems with self-sacrifice and this blame towards himself is at the heart of it?

I dunno… Analysing season 11 Cas right now because I felt my heart skip a beat when Dean opened the back of the car and I need to chill before he hands over the trenchcoat because I’m not dying on their account >.>

* * *

(IT WAS JUST THERE RIGHT ON TOP OF EVERYTHING DEAN DIDN’T EVEN RUMMAGE)

* * *

I hate how in the end that was all Dean needed to do to convince Cas at least do this much, when moments before he’d been ready to nope out and go live on Mars

Until this point I don’t think aside from being extremely strongly associated with Cas for bloody obvious reasons, the trenchcoat had pulled metaphorical weight just because it wasn’t really the main object of attention? From this point onwards the way Cas dresses (well, also Emmanuel) has a whole lot of symbolism and it starts here with Dean showing Cas how much he’s cared and carried that trenchcoat around with him, and how much it MEANS. And for Cas, it’s his battle armour and his identity as an angel - it’s his call to arms, and this whole episode is the steps to bring Cas back into the story, and him accepting this is the last stage for him to step up and re-enter officially.

And of course this moment is mirrored over and over - 8x07 Cas changing back into the old uniform completely. 9x10 Cas showing up in the new coat… 

* * *

Anyway look Cas is here to save Saaaam

* * *

Cas gets that look in his eye as he realises what he has to do and goes all determined and focussed 

… As much as he kind of really needs to do this I’m kind of betraying my inner Cas girl by going “Cas noooo” and betraying all the meta I ever write about the importance of Cas saving Sam. :P

* * *

Cas looking over his shoulder to tell Dean “it’s better this way” of course we’ve literally just seen Cas look over his shoulder in 7x01 or 2 (I forget because I always watch them back to back :P) to say sorry Dean… And of course that same scene was “I’ll find some way to redeem myself to you” which wasn’t shown but is called back to by that one glimpse…

* * *

After he says that he ignores Dean and talks directly to Sam so yeah those were his temporary “last words” to Dean (I guess the next time he seems to have perfect clarity is his last words to Dean briefly in Purgatory in 7x23 DAMMIT WHY ARE ALL THEIR CONVERSATIONS FULL OF LAST WORDS?)

…

I have sabotaged myself with the earlier depressing thoughts, I just remembered 11x10 and that sad parting look with the sad music which was disproportionately OTT at the time before you know they’re not going to see each other for like 7 episodes and counting because Cas is going to be POSSESSED BY LUCIFER

(like so:)

> HALLUCIFER  
> Hello… brother. 

And like with a bit more hindsight, thinking about that parting moment in season 11 is AWFUL and getting WORSE the longer time passes

* * *

*goes to kick a pebble and mutter darkly about why nice things can’t happen*

* * *

*grumbles some more*

> DEAN   
> Word gets out, we can’t protect him. Not really.
> 
> This is safer.

I forgot Dean justifies leaving Cas behind as for his own protection. 

This still seems like one of their worst ideas just logistically, although leaving Meg in charge because “mutually assured destruction” actually is a way around some of the sillier aspects of just leaving a mentally damaged angel at the mercy of the normal human hospital which is 0% prepared for him… 

Also: I just remembered why I got so sad at the end of Caged Heat for no reason I could put my finger on - Dean and Sam talking over the top of the car with the hospital in the background looks weirdly like that moment. Not sure if it’s the same set (although it wouldn’t surprise me)

* * *

> DEAN  
> She’s not our friend. We don’t even have friends. All our friends are dead. 

Ooh right okay Sam quoted that back to Dean that time when he says it in season 8… I suppose in the context of Sam thinking he might have been working with someone as shifty as Meg then that makes more sense why he was SO suspicious of Benny when Dean didn’t tell him about it?

* * *

And Dean does look suitably miserable about it all 

* * *

I’ll take it, I’m Cas-starved :P

(And yeah, greater arcs, they’re so in love, blah blah, the usual. This is just SUCH a downer ending to the episode for a Cas fan it overshadows itself. >.>)


	18. 7x18

All I remember is that this episode is very silly in a good way

(this is not a very meta-y rewatch I am possibly dying today)

* * *

Recap is entirely about Garth, so that’s neutral territory. Lots of Bobby but all related to Garth. I can’t even remember if they stopped to remind us Bobby was dead after watching the opening but I just drank flu strength cold medicine and perhaps that should be a disclaimer on the rest of this :P

* * *

> CHRIS  
> Forced out after her family was killed in a fire. She lost everything. Some say, even her humanity.
> 
> RAY  
> That is  _so_  sad.
> 
> CHLOE  
> Shut up!
> 
> CHRIS  
> It’s a true story, Ray. Look.

The sounds horrific when you turn it back on the Winchesters. Not even sure at this stage in the story if it was meant to be a parallel, not least because Sam is actually A OK for the first time in EVER as of this episode and we have to get into Carver era for the whole “losing their humanity” thing to really be a plot point again… Sam hasn’t truly dealt with that since season 4, so the only person who remains perpetually on the table for a parallel like this must be John Winchester? Unless of course it’s about Bobby as his house burned down this season… 

This is also, of course, the episode where the alcoholism subplot becomes part of the episode’s A plot so Bobby or John, that’s a thing

probably

* * *

My brain is like swimming through soup and honestly I typed most of those sentences backwards the first time so if that made sense… 

* * *

I can’t remember why this kid was so drunk in the cold open. Was there some pre-existing family strife we only found out about later? In any case it’s one of the camper’s brothers (I assume connected to the family business brewery) and for the cold open rather than the family politics motives we find out later, has two traits: drunk and dead, aside from being a brother, so is an ominous Winchester parallel

* * *

Nooo it’s Cas’s burger plaaace

It was in 6x03 or the set was anyhow, and I know this is possibly just part of the season 7 fast food theme but coming so soon after Cas is put back on the board as a playing piece just makes my heart hurt

Garth rolls up to interview the two girls who were at the campfire and who work there - both of them were The Girlfriend and I can’t remember them actually doing anything else in this episode

* * *

we’re making it an impressively long time without any Winchesters… At this point I’d be starting to wonder if this was just a Garth spin off episode and kind of secretly enjoying it because… he grows on you

*has a moment of delirious confusion double-checking with myself Sam and Dean actually are in this episode*

Also this kid who is drunkenly trying to avenge his brother (I think it’s the brother from the cold open??) is off in the woods with a rifle trying to be a hunter and actually gets mauled by the monster so there’s a terrible Winchester drunken codependency rage spiral thing there… He feels more like the Sam although this in the woods with a rifle thing also calls back to 7x09 and Bobby-related stuff so…

* * *

7 minutes in and there’s Winchesters on screen, Sam is driving because I guess he’s allowed to drive whenever he likes when Baby isn’t involved, and also he’s the more healthy happy brother now he’s been fixed. Dean was on the phone with Meg getting an update on Cas, so yay starting an episode with Dean worrying about Cas

(I am so so aware this is the start of the Token Cas Mention Per Episode deal we live with to this day, but on the other hand, Dean’s season 7 trauma + Destiel = yay)

> SAM  
> It’s all right. It’s getting better. Just wish it wasn’t like the damn tape from “The Ring.” I mean, I feel like I’m okay ‘cause I passed on the crazy.
> 
> DEAN  
> No, you didn’t. You heard what Cas said.

Amused they mentioned the Ring after the first sighting of the MotW since she’s obviously a rip off of that look (or was that the Grudge? honestly i never watched any of them somehow despite all the horror movies we used to watch)

Anyway Sam thinks that he’s somehow afflicted Cas because of course he feels bad about this *ruffles up his hair and hands him a cookie* Sam Winchester, everyone.

Dean understands rather better that this was something Cas needed to settle, and at least while Cas is like this, before they really start talking (shouting) to each other in later episodes, there’s enough steps made that Dean is seriously worried and checking in and complaining more about Meg… Exhibiting concerned boyfriend behaviours even while he and Cas are still technically broken up

* * *

Sam and Dean roll up to the morgue or wherever this is wearing very coordinated suits and ties all blue and gold and no conflict colours here. Brothers on good terms! NO DRAMA

> SAM  
> You didn’t say they were brothers. 

This whole thing sort of shakes them up quite apart from them both seeming to walk in already expecting Garth to be a fuck up. It’s always personal when it’s brothers?

Dean’s EMF thingy is proven to be vastly superior to Garth’s, implying Dean’s engineering skill is considerably higher. Yay smart!Dean. I know him making the damn thing is always the first point on any list of Dean’s smarts but I guess this is proving that him making a reliably good EMF thingy is a rare and important skill just because Garth doesn’t

* * *

> DEAN  
> Uh… [chuckles] So, invisible ghost werewolf? 

Can’t tell if he’s making fun of Garth or thinks that would be really fun to hunt

* * *

> SAM  
> Hey. Either of you ever heard of Thighslapper Ale?
> 
> GARTH  
> Is that a stripper or a beverage?
> 
> DEAN  
> Beverage for douchebags.

That sounds like a really Dean line (maybe he and Garth have more in common than he thinks :P) but Dean at least has already heard about it even if he’s never tried it… Linking him early with the alcohol and letting Garth take the fall for the borderline skeevy comment

* * *

I can never remember what the deal was with the 2 remaining bosses of the brewery except there was a third one who died and set the ghost on them all… I know I must have seen this episode a zillion times (AT LEAST 5) and I still don’t remember their story and they’re just grumpy and shifty and interchangeable

I can’t even remember if one dies or not

oooh okay the dead one who died before the episode killed himself

they have a ton of kids and there’s politics between them all and idk what’s going on or if he’s even a parallel for someone or if this is just a vague application of the themes of the season to put a load of them on the table after a brief break for some plot episodes

* * *

Someone else got murdered though, when as far as I recall we’ve never seen her before so we had to have one of the other blokes from the brewery show up just to prove she was relevant

And the kid was conveniently drunk to see it, also making sure we know being drunk is important to this episode 

* * *

My impression of this episode is mostly bafflement and a lingering feeling that throwing like 10 characters at us wasn’t necessary. :P 

* * *

> DEAN  
> All right, that’s it. No microbrew is worth …what was it – eight  _Food Magazine_  awards? Beer’s not food. It’s… whatever water is. 

That’s possibly the second most depressing thing he’s ever said after that thing from 11x14 about drinking a beer because Sam drank all the coffee and what’s he supposed to drink, water?

Dean pls just have a glass of water

Meanwhile the whole thing with him fiddling with the flash and Garth fiddling to fix his EMF thingy are nicely coordinated to show that the flask is haunted - playing off earlier jokes about Garth’s EMF thingy and doing a lot of heavy lifting on show not tell with Dean and the alcoholism subplot before he opens his mouth about beer = water

then I suppose to show us a “normal” reaction for a softboiled hunter, Garth weirdly downs the entire beer and gets drunk

… No I don’t understand either

Also in my experience even being a lightweight, do you really get drunk within seconds of drinking, even as a kid or Garth?

* * *

Garth and Dean show up at the next investigation wearing almost identical jackets, and Garth nicked Dean’s EMF thingy and had both of them in his pockets. This is where despite Garth’s certifiably wacky methods, Dean has to grudgingly allow that he gets results and perhaps working towards the answer to “how are you still alive??” because clearly he has to have some skills if he’s been hunting at least since the start of season 6 and STILL hasn’t died.

* * *

Sam and his awesome hair go to be sympathetic to the widow

he has no plot atm except for having the hair

* * *

Meanwhile Dean is combining alcoholism and Bobby not being dead and not listening to Garth when he should

they just… leave him in the car… to investigate the brewery

* * *

It is TERRIFYING how much the Winchesters have to drink once they’ve been compared to Garth

I still don’t get how how the ghost showed up on the camera only when they were drunk

that seems fake even for this show’s rules

* * *

> SAM  
> I’ve already tried contacting Bobby. When that beer disappeared, I pulled out a talking board.
> 
> DEAN  
> Without me?
> 
> SAM  
> You know, I figured, why drag you in… when it’s something I could just put to bed myself.

… huh 10x17 comes to mind where Sam once again contacted Bobby behind Dean’s back - and got through that time… Sam has a very direct and practical approach to stuff, and while that’s a hugely emotional deal for either of them, I think a lot of this stuff Sam ends up not getting such a dramatic emotional plotline as Dean out of it just because he has this sort of approach to stuff: very calm and rational even when it is something important to Sam… I mean 7x01 contrasted how Sam and Dean dealt with Cas, and Dean did it by messy implosion, while Sam reached calmly out to Cas then too. And Sam clearly feels more direct guilt than Dean about Cas’s current situation despite Dean being the one who brought Cas to him, yet although Sam reaches out to Cas a couple more times before the end of the season to check in on him, it’s Dean who has the huge messy argument with Cas dealing with his feelings over the last few episodes…

tl:dr have Sam with you in an emotional crisis

* * *

Dean just nopes out of having to deal with the guy Garth has locked up in the hot tub

Garth tells him the truth and gets more answers which he’s going to need to save the kid

This episode is like “yay kindness and truth” and it’s a very odd note :P Garth is needed to lighten the mood. Like I mean, flinging him into the middle of 2 huge bro fights in season 8 & 9 is pretty calculated… 

* * *

Dean’s improvising to get the weapon they need is classic smart Dean outside the box thinking <3

* * *

(ooh, Glass episode. One of the new writers I was like “yep showed up in season 6 and got bullied to write smart!Dean)

* * *

I mean he looks like a total dork doing it and it’s hilarious but it actually WORKS and this guy at the sushi place is making a good amount of cash, and asking no questions, and is one of my fave background people on the show… like does he come away from this believing that maybe ghosts are real? He pretended not to be superstitious but he sure handed that box away quickly… how does he feel when Dean comes back with a sword? Does he suspect what’s going on? Does Dean do a Garth and just tell him the truth??

* * *

Can’t believe we get to see Sam driving in a taxi, what a special day

* * *

Garth comes swooping in to save the day and also blabs the whole truth to the guy he needs to save and… isn’t believed

* * *

Probably used up all his suspension of disbelief cards for the case

* * *

Sam adds another tally to number of times he’s knocked out and has to direct Dean to kill the monster because he’s clearly not ready to get up again while drunk and slightly concussed. Which leads to Dean, not drunk, weirdly the “sober responsible adult” of the team, to swing wildly, fall foul of Winchester miscommunication (”My right!) and come dangerously close to hurting the guy they’re trying to protect while flailing… 

Sword still has its price tag on it 

I really like the Dean hero moment of the sword sliding into his hand - and of course Bobby handing it to him… it seems very symbolic of picking up the fight and I was talking about how Dean has to continue Bobby’s revenge quest for him: Bobby goes vengeful and can’t finish the mission so Dean sees it done… In a way 7x23 has its own shades of 2x22 and Dean killing Azazel for John, with the weapon handed to him, even if it took a little longer for John handing over the Colt to come to anything

(And of course this is part 1 of the “special sword” foreshadowing - thanks Charlie :P)

Anyway Dean being the sober one is probably important too because Sam oversees him having his “are you there?” moment with Bobby, and if Dean’s of clear (ish) mind it says a lot more about his suspicions and being certain of what he saw… 

* * *

Oooh Dean’s wearing his maroon shirt in this last scene! I think just because it matches the motel exterior because we’re not anywhere near a Dean descent arc… Although I suppose he can just wear it when he’s concerned about people. I think he has it in 8x16 while being concerned about Sam, unless I’m imagining things… Anyway it doesn’t have nearly so much mileage until the descent arc

> GARTH  
> Sayonara, kemosabes!  Nice ride. 

And of course one more for the road Garth and Dean parallels because their current stolen car is superficially similar to Garth’s apparent vehicle of choice

* * *

> DEAN  
> Well then what, Sam? Is Bobby here, or not?
> 
> SAM  
> You know what I think, Dean? I think that regular people, they see ones they lost everywhere too.
> 
> DEAN  
> Yeah, freakin’ ghosts!
> 
> SAM  
> Or they just miss ‘em a lot. I mean, they see a face in a crowd, we see a book falling off the table.

thinking ahead to 8x07 and Sam agreeing Dean is just having grief visions of Cas… DESPITE proof that the last time this happened to them it really was something? He really thought Dean was losing it over Cas… I mean he did say he tested extensively if it was Bobby without getting any proof so is now rationalising it that way… 

(It’s occurred to me that 8x07 may have been a miracle for its writers but it was still them so can I trust the characterisation between these episodes? :P)

* * *

Ugh I think 11x16 has actually broken me… I got so emotionally compromised by Dean not seeing Bobby. His death is feeling a lot more real in a way it never really does in season 7 to me before?

I refuse to start getting tearful over episodes that have never made me cry before.


	19. 7x19

Or: Okay, but hear me out… what if a  _ghost_  haunted  _another ghost_

In the long run this episode literally just exists to remind us that ghosts turn vengeful and I have always watched this season expecting all this new ghost lore to be super useful but nah

* * *

I am at least starting this in the same addled state as the last rewatch but on the other hand I think it’s okay for this episode :P

* * *

It feels really wrong for Sam and Dean to be doing the junk food thing sitting on not-Baby

I keep thinking about how she’s Dean’s soulmate and laughing

because that means she has a soul

Dean is like half-soulless over this season

* * *

Anyway yeah this is really pushing the fast food thing because you could have uncluttered this episode by just having the cold open and then Sam and Dean waiting at the restaurant for Annie and expositioning the rest 

but on the other hand this season is pretty consistent with reminding you junk food exists… marathoning it too fast always makes me want chips

* * *

this looks like every haunted house on this show. I remember amusing myself in the early seasons thinking about how the random kids sneaking in to make out in these places brought a constant supply of candles, and it seems to be true in this case

I’ve always thought Annie was somehow character assassinated despite being their original character who only showed up in the last minute for the first time, just because if she was a competent hunter, who seems pretty reminiscent of Ellen in looks, the fact she didn’t even have a shotgun of rock salt in her hand while investigating a haunted house like… no wonder she gets murdered by ghosts. Being a hunter doesn’t make you superhuman and immune to them just because you know they exist. It’s supposed to mean you’re smart and well-equipped enough to go near them and not get murdered because your awareness is a tactical advantage

oh well you need to be a ghost for this episode to work :P

* * *

Dean is also back to obsessing over Dick Roman after a break to do other stuff, since we’re now an episode away from finding out what that’s all about, so at the very least this episode has managed to cram in a very thorough recap/foreshadowing of all the important issues.

Or Dean just happened to find an article about Dick in the paper he happened to be reading and it was coincidence who knows

* * *

why was it necessary to establish they all slept with Annie anyway

* * *

Anyway Dean is still drinking during the day, probably giving that flask more exercise per day than even when Bobby had it

* * *

Bobby manages to influence Dean to use his exact phrasing without strictly hearing him, which is cute, anyway, caling back to 2x01. They’re obviously more linked since Dean’s the one with the flask (he’s Bobby’s favourite) and Sam is trying to healthily move on while Dean is still making the conscious choice to keep the flask on him at all times

* * *

Sam and Dean appear extremely more competent than Annie just by going to the creepy house in the daytime.

… no wait the murdery ghost is alive and well and Sam and Dean walk right through him

apparently he just doesn’t feel murdery during the day

* * *

> BOBBY  
> So, uh… So, you duck your reaper, too?
> 
> ANNIE  
> What? No. I never even saw one

apparently reapers just plain don’t come for people who die of violent deaths? I always figured it was more of a choice… I mean not like Bobby didn’t die a violent death yet still had a reaper… On the other hand maybe this isn’t a regular thing despite this episode seemingly heaping on loads of new ghost lore and the scary murdery ghost just chases off reapers. :P I dunno

* * *

How long HAVE Sam and Dean been wandering around this house I think it’s got dark since they’ve been there

* * *

> BOBBY  
> What’s option two? You said there were two ways.
> 
> HASKEL CRANE  
> Oh, you could use explosive anger and pure, red-hot rage, but that’s impossible to manufacture. Sorry.
> 
> ANNIE  
> Makes sense. Like poltergeists – vengeful spirits.
> 
> BOBBY  
> I  _am_  vengeful. You think I don’t have red-hot rage?

honestly probably not a great idea to voice this out loud but of course I’m already on the record paralleling Mark of Cain stuff to Dean as a vengeful ghost as quite an intense arc so this is Bobby getting the advice to give in to his anger and power up off of it, which fuels his own vengefulness, and exacerbates the “condition”… so this is like 9x11 for Bobby and this is like his Cain or whatever

idk :P

* * *

> BOBBY  
> Is it me, or am I being checked out?
> 
> ANNIE  
> No, stud. I’m being checked out.

you know what I can’t actually remember if Victoria survives this episode, so this is me biting my lip

actually no I’m going to go search the transcript for mentions of her >.>

Hahaha yeah she got ghost-killed

Go away Bucklemming no one likes you - that’s literally half your episodes on the show at this point in season 7

* * *

Anyway then Bobby hangs out while Dean’s in the shower

this episode is so weird

* * *

Dean doesn’t even have a “Bobby was watching me shower” realisation

… probably for the best

* * *

While Annie watches the murdery ghost murder some people, there’s an empty beer bottle of the Death Beer next to her on the mantlepiece… 

* * *

> VICTORIA  
> Punished him. He was trying to warn them. He tried to warn you, too. He drained him.
> 
> ANNIE  
> Drained? What does that mean?
> 
> VICTORIA  
> That’s why he’s so strong and why you should stay out of sight. We’re merely food to him – food and perverse entertainment.
> 
> ANNIE  
> So, when he does that, what happens? Just… poof?
> 
> VICTORIA  
> Forever.

I suppose murdery ghost is a Dick Roman parallel? A warning that he will consume everyone? (if you hadn’t figured that out already)

* * *

TBH Victoria could be a really terrible foreshadowy Cas parallel to make you nervous in 7x23: she has to step forward and talk to Sam and Dean to help Bobby and Annie.. Much as Dean takes Cas with him to identify the real Dick it’s just a sort of helpful communication role to the actual hunting part, and then of course she’s consumed by the murdery ghost for talking to them…

… not that anything bad happened to Cas out of the ordinary so :P

* * *

getting stuck in Purgatory with Dean counts as a regular day for them

* * *

Also if the murdery ghost is so sneaky why doesn’t he just murder Sam and Dean right away instead of killing Victoria and going on some gambit to kill Sam and Dean elsewhere? >.>

I mean maybe he thought despite evidence of Sam and Dean being made to look really dense about… literally everything… in this episode, that they’re actually competent hunters he can’t risk having skilled hunters die on his property in case they figure it out and hunt him…

* * *

Anyway why am I logic-ing this?

* * *

He plants his tethered object on Dean, anyway, which is a direct parallel to what Bobby’s already done with his flask in this house AND a parallel to Bobby using his flask to possess the maid at the end of the season and cause trouble when he goes vengeful, so this is showing Bobby the possible dark end of his arc as an evil ghost - cartoonishly evil in this case - and shows us how Bobby is already on the steps to becoming it, because like he said he’s already full of rage…

* * *

Aaah birdcage imagery in the creepy attic where all the bodies are stashed… that also comes up with the Mark of Cain arc being associated with Dean

(Also from Playthings back in season 2 I remember…)

* * *

I find it very weird that Bobby and Annie talk obliquely about the concept that is probably what The Empty is making this one of the first times it’s discussed as other discussions of nothing after death come from a different, atheist-y POV rather than acknowledging that there are afterlives but not everything might go to them

> ANNIE  
> It’s a little different when you’re on the receiving end. So, uh… what do you think happens to ‘em – Heaven, Hell, or… none of the above?
> 
> BOBBY  
> I don’t know. Just… gone, most likely.

* * *

Anyway then Sam and Dean get attacked by a ghost and in further “ghosts don’t work like that” destroy the thing he was attached to but don’t actually kill him

* * *

I got less than 10 minutes left and a weird migraine

* * *

Still don’t know if Bobby didn’t accidentally absorb murder-y ghost himself

who even knows

I also thought THAT would be important but it never was

I mean unless you take away Bobby’s vengeful arc as not his own but being influenced by eating the murder-ghost 

* * *

I wonder if there’s an Amara parallel to make in all this, since the guy was going around absorbing people 

Bucklemming do seem to be spending the most time on Amara in their episodes this season

* * *

Anyway aaah they can see Bobby 

… Sam has his realisation that he never managed to contact Bobby because he always did it sneakily when Dean wasn’t there

thinking about Bobby being stuck with Dean all this time is just making me think that not only was it implied that Bobby was stuck in the house when Dean had his Amazon hook up, but it’s sort of actively courting us to wonder about it

* * *

Anyway then they start fighting about how they have to make Bobby move on or not and Bobby doesn’t feel like they’re respecting his life choices so he goes off in a sulk

> DEAN  
> I have no idea. Maybe. I’ve never heard of it. But you know what I do know? It ain’t the natural order of things. Everything is supposed to end. You know, he was supposed… And now… What are the odds this ends well? 

Dean stops short on “supposed to end” possibly because he realises how much of a hypocritical statement THAT is when he and Sam have cumulative like 1000 deaths between them 

* * *

Anyway! That’s all the conflict set up for the end of the season! 

*quietly moves my Charlie funko pop onto my desk now the Bucklemming threat is over*


	20. 7x20

Or: oh yeah that episode with whatsername from the IT department

* * *

I’m going to miss when there’s no new Bobby voice overs regularly for the recaps… He delivers so much plot exposition that we’re always getting him telling us what’s what and it’s such a soothing thing from season 2-7… I’m mourning/missing like everyone in this episode and why do I have Cas feels and Kevin isn’t even here yet, I am just  _completely incapable of telling these two episodes apart_. 

….

If anyone asks I did not mentally prepare myself for 7x21 before clicking on the episode and realising who it was actually about

* * *

Okay I’m not mourning Dick Roman although I do miss the jokes. They should have a random moment before the season is over to say “hey remember when life was as simple as hunting Dick?” I feel like Sam hasn’t made fun of Dean enough back in this season compared to my memory of it and now season 11 is calling back to season 7 pretty heavily in some ways so why not this too?

* * *

Ooh this episode starts with them talking about what Dick’s looking for in the archaeological digs, and Dean says he was looking into the lore etc for the sites and says “nothing but old dirt for 50 miles around” - of course the thingy they’re looking for is basically a very old chunk of dirt. Important dirt though.

We don’t actually find that out this episode though, so despite this episode actually setting us on the path to finding out, the question continues unanswered so I swear we’ve gone half the season without knowing what’s up aside from there being dig sites…

* * *

In any case, Robbie’s allowed to uncap the lid on Part 1 of the Leviathan plotline which is the whole quite unsurprising Biggersons/Soylent Green/farming humans reveal but actually explaining it all out loud takes some pressure off the whole endless suspense of the thing (I would say why did they take so long to tell us what the Leviathans were planning when it was so obvious they’d eat everyone but, look, I’m typing this 17 episodes into season 11 and they still haven’t actually explained what Amara means to do despite it being bloody obvious since like 10x23 she’ll probably devour the entire universe if she gets mad enough, so if we actually find out next episode as promos imply, we’re  _ahead_  of schedule based on season 7 & 11 running similar plot structure with Leviathans/the Darkness)

There’s no particular reason they couldn’t have been slightly more obvious about it since the helplessness about the situation stays until the end of 7x21 when Kevin does his thing and finally gives them a way to stop the Leviathan, but then again they might have had to start complaining about the food since the middle of the season. Maybe no news is good news when it comes to dragging out a food zombie scenario just when it comes to cramming in main plot references at the beginning of every episode with the usual important issues tickbox regularity the show’s format has had since season 7 (not so much season 6, because the whole point was they kept forgetting to prioritise the main plot and it came as a twist :P)

I still wonder if there were food zombies in the background for like every episode since the moderate time skip for Bobby Sadness and the Winchesters were just spectacularly unobservant, since the Leviathans seemed almost on top of things in 7x09 like not far from cracking it at all…And Sam and Dean just haven’t noticed yet… I mean on the other hand they’ve been eating tons of junk food on screen without ill effect and it only becomes a problem after they’ve had a warning but before they’ve consumed enough themselves to be affected

* * *

Anyway we get flashbacks to literally the entire Leviathan plotline one way or another, so I guess in a way this is just taking the recap out of the recap and putting it into the cold open

… let’s just say this is Robbie being meta even though that’s probably a blatant lie :P 

I feel sorry for what he had to work with anyhow for the start of this episode, as it’s like “hey here’s your first big plot episode have at it and explain season 7 to everyone”

* * *

Charlieee

I am in pain. I haven’t seen her on screen since the end of season 10

* * *

> SAM  
> Um, okay. “My drive is full of compromising info. Your new aliases, hangouts, where you stored your car…”
> 
> DEAN  
> Baby?

This is *clearly* Dean’s entire motivation through the first part of the episode

* * *

I wonder if Robbie is paid per pop culture reference

* * *

there are 3 perfect character introductions on this show: Cas, Death, and then this dork.

* * *

*pretends I’m not crying that my desk is covered in Funko Pops and one of them is her*

*quietly fist-bumps her*

* * *

She’s so tiny and happy and has no idea that everyone is monsters 

* * *

Um, Charlie on the screen, although I guess my funko pop has been hanging out with funko!Cersei Lannister so I have no idea how she’s doing on that front because Cersei is probably a Leviathan. 

* * *

> DICK ROMAN  
> Charlie, I’ve been running things for, well, feels like since before the dawn of man. Always had a vision. I’m close to realizing that dream. I don’t want to brag, but the world is my dinner plate. 

Let’s be real, innuendo about eating people pound for pound, they’re matched, but I still somehow feel that Hannibal would get the best of Dick

* * *

Actually he literally just has no chill about admitting he’s a Leviathan because he’s enjoying this wolf in sheep’s clothing so much… He’s literally talking about “humans”

he’s wearing a yellow tie and pocket square which I think is meant to link him to happiness and sunshine thanks to Charlie’s intro - basically “haha look at me I’m a human just like you” and make him seem friendly except that it’s also extremely threatening:

<http://justanotheridijiton.tumblr.com/post/129735633609/yellow-is-a-contrary-color-its-the-color-of-both>

and of course while he’s pretending to be something other than he is and making a dramatic irony mockery of the situation, he’s playing into both versions of that colour coding at once

* * *

> DICK ROMAN  
> You’re kind of completing me right now, Charlie. You have that spark, that thing that makes humans so special. Not everyone has it, you know. Those people – they can be replaced. But people like you… are impossible to copy.
> 
> CHARLIE  
> C-copy?
> 
> DICK ROMAN  
> Take the compliment.

is this a meta commentary on how you shouldn’t kill off the token lesbian because of what they stand for in terms of representation when they are that special spark in the story, or am I being bitter

Also: this episode being the pinnacle of the Leviathan’s fall from power in terms of symbolism of how it happens. Dick has to admit to Charlie’s face that she’s got ~special powers~ that he doesn’t have, aka human imagination and intelligence that works in a different way from this evil exploitative power the Leviathans have that model the dark in humanity (capitalism, our “top of the food chain” status turned against us with slaughterhouses using our worst farming techniques, sketchy politics… We see Charlie donating conservative politician’s money to an animal shelter in a basic demonstration of human darkness vs human kindness…) so of course she represents the good - the underdog, the high school drop out who subverts the typical structures that can be corrupted into dark things and become representative of humanity at its worst.

This is actually one of the only seasons where someone else is the most important in this specific trope that’s normally Dean’s thing, making her Charlie “Humanity” Bradbury character rather than Dean being the one whose humanity is the most important? Like, for a one episode character at this point she has one heck of a kick. She’s very frequently a Dean mirror, definitely in all her season 8 episodes and 10x11, and shows his place in the mytharc but here she actually does the kind of legwork vs the Leviathans that has the same plot impact as Dean to Cas in 4x22 or Dean to Sam/Lucifer in 5x22 or Dean’s failed attempt to do the same in 6x20 to Cas, to at least look at where Dean “Humanity” Winchester was the main plot resolution (or not) so far in the show… 

And this one little speech from Dick basically drapes the mantle on her shoulders before she does anything

I mean, obviously that’s the whole point of her character here, but I feel like it’s important to point out in the grander scheme of things exactly what boots she’s filling thematically, especially because of her later importance as a Dean mirror

* * *

Anyway Dick saying that she’s “completing” him points out where he’s undermined: the Leviathan literally can’t function in human society despite setting themselves up as the “one percenters” and using our structures to gain power, because for all their innovation and tech savviness they don’t entirely fit and they can’t replicate the very things they’re enjoying the most: the creativity and spirit that comes only from humanity - they are missing vital pieces for their operation, so Dick keeping a human staff in Richard Roman Enterprises is a very literal metaphor for their “one percenter” status, where he’s the powerful monster on top of a whole lot of regular workers, because he needs to use their labour to get what he needs to get ahead. Turning humanity into food zombies means dulling that spark and potentially eating the bright minds of the future, stagnating the very culture they’re infiltrating… I mean maybe they’ll not care about living in basically the post apocalyptic wasteland that would follow because they existed BEFORE all this, but enough of the Leviathan are shown enjoying fancy coffee or music or molten nacho cheese or whatever, that they’re clearly actively ENJOYING the culture that they’ve discovered on returning to Earth from Purgatory after billions of years. 

tl:dr the system is broken and WOW I love the social commentary about the wider world that *we* live in that the Leviathans represent? They’re so much the cleverest monster from the writing point of view

… my “season 7 appreciation blog” tag was initially pretty much entirely just for this one reason no matter how much I grimace and slap it on any old gifset now :P

* * *

Anyway I am so emotional about Charlie in her Leia t-shirt and then Dean over here like “great it’s in the middle of the Death Star”

* * *

you can also blame Hermione for Charlie’s whole arc being interesting rather than her just cracking the thing and handing it over to Dick and everyone getting eaten.

*throws confetti at fandom saving the universe*

* * *

I’ve always wondered about Frank’s “journal” being a typed thing with handwritten notes on it and then scanned in again… I guess he liked keeping things on the computer? Or the prop department was feeling lazy since obviously this was all actually done on the computer even if it’s meant to be pretending to just be a scanned journal, except they used a handwriting font instead of hand-writing it for real…

There’s typos in Frank’s handwritten journal :P

I just love how weird that makes Frank look even when he’s not talking about the guy he saw at the post office “prolly” being a Leviathan.

I mean he hand-drew a Leviathan apparently unless that’s Sam’s art skillz being put to use and he was demonstrating how they looked to Frank… either way, Frank’s hardrive is all scanned images.

Probably just for security reasons because then you can’t have something just scanning the text in there/keyloggers when he writes it/whatever else he’d be paranoid about

Anyway part of his voice over is advising that you should send a Leviathan “to the moon if you can” so there’s another time the solution to an unworkable problem was launching things into space

thanks Robbie

* * *

Dick’s pocket thingy now looks like Leviathan fangs before he shows his true colours:

*laziest screenshotting ever*

Also for the whole warning sign thing, that garage is very yellow too.

* * *

Noooo Charlie’s encountered Winchesters *sobs loudly about Dean saying he isn’t going to hurt her*

* * *

Ahaha the Sucrocorp advert

I can’t tell what’s sinister and what’s normal advertising… Corporate adverts are always so weird.

The logo probably looks like a mouth without teeth? 

(thinking about superimposing Dick’s pocket fangs over it)

* * *

that is a sentence that only works with context

* * *

Aw Charlie’s apartment is all orange and red, and her bed is superficially similar to the sofa Dean’s strongly aligned with… And Dean’s sitting on her orange sofa in her living room… Her apartment is orange overall.

that’s how you know you can trust her. :P

(this episode is very blue and yellow, with Charlie mostly aligned with blue so I guess that’s humanity? And yellow is monsters? There’s some meta out there about how a lot of the times with strong blue and yellow it’s angels at work but I’m thinking about how It’s A Terrible Life is one example of that and that makes me wonder if this epispde’s got this contrast because of the office setting - Brady in his office was dressed very much like Dean Smith, colours included. I guess this is also a season with a very very low angel plot so they can re-purpose those colours.

Honestly sometimes wonder if it’s just because blue and yellow are such a break from the show’s normal colour schemes it’s a quick way to broadcast a change of theme)

* * *

> DEAN  
> It’s not that easy. You’re on Dick’s radar, which means you don’t have an old life anymore.
> 
> CHARLIE  
> I’m gonna die. I should have taken that job at Google.
> 
> SAM  
> Look, Charlie, it’s okay if you can’t do it. I mean, you didn’t volunteer for this.
> 
> CHARLIE  
> Totally. Exactly. But now I volunteer.

*gently puts a hand on her head* (Funko!Charlie since I have her here :P) Look at you accepting the hero’s call. :’)

I’m like 99% sure my blog is full of meta about her arc being awesome sauce if you know where to look (9x04 tag maybe, if not 10x11 depending on the age of the meta), so I won’t go on about it but yeah omg her whole journey *sobs* 

Of course the whole thing with her foam Sting (oh god my tag for her is “Frodo Lives” after certain events but I forgot about thiiiissss) and after all this fandom alignment to heroic characters inspiring her to Do The Right Thing drags in innumerable pop culture references to LotR/Star Wars/Harry Potter which are all big hero mythic stories also of course sets up the internal conflict she has over most of her early episodes about idealism about stories vs the truth, and the dangers of hunting and monsters in the real world vs how safe fiction is. Her foam sword breaks just beating Sam up with it - she’s hideously unprepared to take up the hero’s call but she does anyway because Charlie is the best… And over time she grows into that role, like, Moondoor is another play version, but she’s confident as a leader and fake warrior, and then in 8x20 we see her BAMFing her way through the computer game’s fake combat… By the time she’s packed off to Oz to learn the real skills fighting actual things she’s been through tons of simulations and got better each time? I love how we see her develop through all these layers of being in the story…

(pls stop me writing 1000 words on all of Charlie’s (Robbie-written) episodes every time she does or says anything… it’s such a struggle)

* * *

*quietly sobs about Bobby watching them meet Charlie because I forgot he was in the room*

I mean he’s mostly fixating on Dick (that sounds so wrong when I’m not talking about Dean’s obsession with Dick) but I just like that even only vaguely parts of their family met/crossed paths?

(I have just made myself sad remembering I *really* started paralleling Dean’s MoC descent to Bobby going vengeful once they’d both broken Charlie’s arm… grr)

* * *

> SAM  
> No. She said if it took longer to hack his desktop, then she deserved to be eaten.
> 
> DEAN  
> I like her.

*sobbing*

* * *

*sobs louder about the Dean and Charlie parallel of her singing when she’s nervous* 

I mean Robbie did marathon the entire show before rolling up into town and referenced a ton of season 1 episodes in his first episode he knows what he’s doing

* * *

ROBBIE. LET ME LIVE.

> CHARLIE  
> Oh. Thank you. [She takes a drink from the flask.] Mmm. Good idea.
> 
> DEAN  
> Yeah, no problem. Look, that’s, uh, kind of a family heirloom. It’s a good-luck charm, okay, so don’t lose it.

* * *

Fandom saves the day again!

And Charlie knows to say “kick it in the ass” without being prompted. You know she’s one of them. >.>

Also yay Sam and Charlie bonding…

… more yay the whole “Sam gets a moment to bond with Charlie over Harry Potter, Dean gets to bond with Charlie over being kinda gay” in a moment since they each get a moment in focus with her :P

I know so much has been written about this whole bit but I do like how Dean seems kinda stumped about how that’s a problem for Charlie, like come on tell me Dean does not indiscriminately flirt for info/access to stuff and not care who it is so he’s actually kind of completely useless for giving Charlie any advice before he decides to flirt with the guard for her because it’s easy for him being able to play through “not my type” when it’s just superficial stuff since underneath that everyone is his type, broadly speaking :P (Maybe he doesn’t even realise that it can be that hard to flirt with someone you’re utterly uninterested in… :P)

* * *

Anyway what is “we’ve all been there”??? 

I am Sam’s face in that fraction of a second when he is like “wait what when did you go to ComicCon and get plastered and make nerdy bad life decisions?”

(Answer: some time before season 6 and the dragon episode, based on information shared there by Dean :P)

* * *

When I say Dean probably flirts for info all the time I am guessing never in front of Sam… I’m remembering Scarecrow (while we’re down in season 1, spiritually) and that first time we see him separated from Sam on a case and like the first thing he does is start flirting with a dude in the creepy town for info

He seems to be really enjoying himself grinning away while Sam is facing in the other direction, then Sam spins around like ???? when he realises what he’s hearing and Dean says “this never happened” 

* * *

> CHARLIE  
> I feel dirty.
> 
> DEAN  
> You and me both, sister.

yeah normally it’s just between Dean and us when he does this sort of thing I am pretty sure the Sam factor did not help :P

* * *

Superwiki has this wrong on the transcript (it has it that she says “ew”) so for the sake of proving my ears occasionally do work I put on subtitles:

Again with Dick and Charlie being in this destructive “you complete me”/actual stark opposites thing juxtaposing “winning” with “fail” - and of course the whole thing with Dick having this hubris that he is “w1nn1ng” while Charlie is telling him that he “fails” - obvs just slang, but the WORD CHOICE. Aaaah. She’s his downfall and I love it.

(A part of me wonders if “Dick” is the reason she was originally conceived as a lesbian just for the whole Charlie rejecting dick thing :P Never mind the whole ridiculously phallic name + power structures = patriarchy blah blah brought down by a woman who loves women… is this season actually feminist?? (probably not seriously intentionally so, Robbie’s efforts aside :P) Robbie introduced Dick though I have no idea who named him, and I assume it’s a group effort from the writers on how Dick was presented… Although I see a lot of Edlund’s mucky fingerprints on all this too… 

Mmm the 2 seasons where Robbie and Edlund were on the team together)

* * *

I haven’t even TALKED about the directing in this episode being so awesome and how it’s randomly a heist movie for this one episode

Or how there’s timeline fuckery because of course there is - knowing who Robbie Thompson is (I actually didn’t realise until 10x05 was looming that one writer was responsible for Charlie never mind anything else he did!) this episode is just so much “OF COURSE IT IS” … There’s a great misdirect with Charlie almost getting caught but not because she was in the bathroom but the camera makes us think the guard will walk in on her… And of course the episode’s going to make us think they took a crushing defeat for a minute until it’s revealed that actually, no, they took their most decisive victory against the Leviathan

* * *

I am probably not literally licking this episode but you can’t prove it and that makes me feel judged

* * *

there’s not much to talk about… we do the sneaky time skip and Dick talks right over it practically intruding on the scene interrupting Dean’s “one last favour” he asks of Charlie and then bam he’s in front of her and smiling his terrifying “i am actually one billion sharks in a suit” smile at her (seriously I love this actor’s portrayal so much it makes me worried he’s an actual primordial horror :P) 

* * *

Dick’s utterly resigned/impressed face when he sees the bomb and he just stands there and waits for it to explode…

the most ridiculous thing is that Sam and Dean hollowed out a perfectly shaped place for the bottle of cleaning product in the suitcase’s foam thingy

Um, anyway, to the point:

> DICK ROMAN  
> Nothing’s safe. I like that. But that isn’t what I’m asking, Charlie. Your spark – it’s one in a million. Believe me, but when you got it, you invent guns and iPads and viruses, and, holy crap, you can be crafty. What is that, Charlie? 

Obviously that’s what his face is about when he sees the bomb: he knows exactly who did it when he asks “Now, who could have done that” because he knows he’s been beaten by that exact thing that “pisses him off” about not being able to replicate the human spark of ingenuity. Even someone good like Charlie can be complicit in immense craftiness - even in the start we see her using her hacking skills illegally even if for good.

I wonder if Dick ever dared think about not “w1nn1ng” and wondered if this spark was going to get him…

… I have a lot of feelings too about how even if the tablet & its instructions came from God, it was humans who had to make and use the weapon, and humans who snatched it from under Dick’s nose, and of course that “spark” is something the Leviathans lack - they’re rivals in Creation to humanity, sort of the unloved older siblings (the practice pancake siblings) who are going to lash out and enslave the creatures that usurped them… And God had made the humans with this something extra - imagination, the power of love, storytelling, creativity, whatever - which enslaving them would take away, making them all placid zombies… Only it’s this exact thing they use to undermine and defeat Dick before he can really get started on the evil plan. I suppose if you’re trying to answer the question of “who’s supposed to be writing the story now we’re off the rails from Destiny” that season 6 was all about flailing over, season 7 and 8 make a point of saying “random humans do and you can all take it into your own  hands…” 

I mean to look all the way ahead to 9x18 (because Robbie episode) Metatron wants to tell his stories but he sort of lacks this spark too because angels can suck at imagination so he admits to borrowing ideas, and instead of owning it like writers making knowing references, he tries rubbishing the source… But anyway he really puts on the table this whole idea of storytelling in general as the way to shape the universe but steals the tablet for himself despite the fact the words were meant to be for humans to guide them… I dunno, there’s so much of this theme out across the next stretch of the show where the tablets are the focus (7x20 > the breaking of the angel tablet so far although there’s still one left in play so I doubt the 2 season pause on this will last forever) just because of this new approach they have introducing the idea that God left behind actual guidance after all, but not for the angels or anyone else, just for his humans to read and use… 

I don’t even know where to start to address all the ideas I have about it and I’ve been tackling this theory of the show a crumb at a time for at least a year or two >.>

* * *

Also not for nothing despite all of that and how much she rocks as being the token Humanity character of the season instead of Dean, I really dig the “Charlie is God” theory just because she heralds the tablets falling into the right hands and I have a whole lot of feelings about her being introduced one episode before Kevin.

I have the feeling that the Kripke era “lol God’s a failed writer in a bathrobe” vibe is their kind of edgy humour on the subject, but I just really like the whole “lol God’s a nerdy lesbian” thought this brings to the table

* * *

but no that totally undermines literally all the the meta I wrote on the humanity thing

* * *

Run Charliiiieeee

* * *

The Dick vs Bobby fight is amazing though

> DICK ROMAN  
> All right, enough! Show yourself. Let’s do this like real monsters.

he can’t eat a ghost and Bobby can only really shove him around - it buys them time but really just serves to fuel Bobby’s vengeance - I guess this is like dean killing Abaddon in this point of their arcs? Dick intentionally compares himself to Bobby as a monster if it wasn’t clear enough

* * *

… And then Bobby looking at Charlie feeling so guilty about accidentally hurting her

MY HEART

* * *

Is Charlie (Felicia) actually left handed or can she just do the Vulcan salute thingy with both hands because that’s pretty impressive - I can only do it with my dominant hand >.>

* * *

*sobs about her leaving them*

*sobs more about her being in the Red Hoodie of Family* and while we’re on the subject of human!Cas….

I’m pretty sure we haven’t seen a familiarly branded Gas-n-Sip yet so that would make their logo a reference back to this although I think Cas’s association with the sun is a whole other thing of its own so they just have cross-over symbolism… As far as I can recall the properly branded ones are pretty much ALL about Cas at least for 8x22/9x06/9x18 until they’re just a regular background part of the show

Anyway of course her intro links her directly to sunshine… And then there’s Dick’s pocket fangs which have that same shape and colour… The last little thing linking Charlie and Dick before she goes, just to remind us who’s the real hero here. :P I mean she tells them good luck saving the world but they really could not have done it without her. Anyway Charlie is moving out of danger and leaving this behind - does the logo haunt her about her where next and having to lie low and off the radar, the reminder of the leviathan following her… or is it her own symbol - her own half of the sun vs Dick’s half - that’s good and pure against his dark corrupt side?

* * *

*one last sob about Dean immediately deciding Charlie has earned sister as a title*

* * *

> DEAN  
> He didn’t mean to do it.
> 
> SAM  
> Exactly. He’s not in control, not about Dick. That was vengeful-spirit crap.
> 
> DEAN  
> I know. But it’s still Bobby.
> 
> SAM  
> But if he really goes there, he won’t be anymore, and then we won’t be able to pull him back. And then what are we supposed to do?

…

fling him into space

(What?! it’s the solution they came up with for the Mark of Cain!)

Yeah anyway that dialogue is so much about Dean in season 10 it makes me dizzy and I can’t think of anything new to say about Bobby because I’m so distracted paralleling it up the line :P

I think the thing about season 7 - especially the latter half of it - is that Gamble era is intentionally or not a bridging time on the show… Season 6 was full of left over Kripke plotlines getting tidied up or just sitting in the rubble of the first 5 seasons looking around for guidance (hey the French Mistake lampshaded that, I’m not being mean :P), but season 7 is where Carver era draws a lot of themes from and changes them around and explores things from new angles or different characters… I was tracking all sort of stuff about Sam in season 8 from earlier this season and in season 6 and now here’s Dean’s mytharc, in a season with the same kind of big bad as season 11′s… and if Chuck is really coming back (as God or not) then it seems the solution to Amara will lie somewhere in the same vicinity as the literal deus ex machina this season pulls, although in season 11′s case it’s been pointing loudly at God since the start, so that’s maaaybe woven in a little better than next episode being like FYI LOOK WHO’S WORD WE FOUND.

I am so excited to dive into next episode oh my god. If you think this rewatch was bad for crawling all up and down canon while I left the screen paused on Charlie’s face so I could sob loudly at it in between typing, I’m TERRIFIED of where 7x21 will go :P

ONLY ONE WAY TO FIND OUT

(maybe I will have nothing to say)


	21. 7x21

Despite mentally gearing myself up to watch this when I once again thought it was episode 20, I’m somehow still not ready to watch this.

[Fortunately the worst part is actually already in my rewatch tag so I can just stare at their faces and not think about it!](http://elizabethrobertajones.tumblr.com/post/108838194338/hey-i-was-wondering-if-you-have-any-meta-on-the)

* * *

The reason I get these two episodes helplessly confused is because Kevin and Charlie are absolutely worth paralleling from their moment of introduction and I think about them a LOT as a unit despite the fact they never met just because of their paralleled introductions.

See, the difference between Charlie’s intro, as the BAMF-y Dean mirror and Kevin’s intro as the helpless Sam mirror, is so painful because Charlie was not a tragedy and never meant to be one, but Kevin’s always was (the NUMBER OF TIMES HE’S KIDNAPPED OR PRESUMED DEAD), and honestly the fact he survived season 7 at all is impressive… 

I was saying in 7x17 that thanks to Cas, the potential bro angst for the end of the season is basically null and void, as the burden of saving Sam is taken from Dean and Cas willingly accepts all the consequences as a result of his own actions, and I was talking about how between that and Marin the brodependency parallels and actions were only explored in mirrored characters or “safe” consequences. 

Kevin and Charlie likewise are the Sam and Dean parallels who do the leg work at the end of the season: Charlie has taken the “Humanity” role that Dean usually pulls to resolve the mytharc and she stays clear of the mytharc for most of the show, acting only as an emotional parallel and sidekick - she carries on pulling a great deal of weight for Dean’s emotional arcs in her sporadic appearances, and as Dean’s role for most of the show is as the emotional counterbalance to Sam’s mytharc stuff means she usually metaphorically has a lot to do with the main arc from Dean’s perspective even while staying safely in MotW episodes for most of the rest of her time on the show.

Kevin, of course, is introduced entirely to facilitate the end of season mytharc resolution, as Sam is unconnected to it and for once in his life nothing happens to him to make him carry the mytharc: instead Kevin pops up and is the one with the inescapable magical destiny ordained by God, and by and large Kevin remains pretty firmly associated with Sam through the rest of his time on the show with mytharc things, thanks to Sam’s part in the season 7 finale relating to rescuing him, him NOT rescuing Kevin over the time skip, season 8′s Trials plotline landing on Sam, or emotionally, with 9x23 Sam making it clear he carries the pain of Kevin’s death in a way Dean never can even if it did sort of spiral Dean off into his Mark of Cain arc (that being much less about Kevin in particular than Dean generally crashing and burning from like, the cumulative weight of everything)

Anyway while both their intros show off their intelligence and disposition, Charlie’s is linked to sunshine and she’s happily dancing and enjoying life, using her intelligence to get ahead and taking on challenges she’s maybe not 100% prepared for but absolutely ready to bravely try… Kevin is playing his own music at night as we meet him and it’s a really melancholy soundtrack, played over Sam and Dean getting ready to crack open their first god rock… Once again their intros are layered over the exposition or Sam and Dean’s own attempts to move on the plot, showing their indispensable role in it and especially for Kevin, tying his fate to what Sam and Dean are doing with the tablet…

* * *

I find it quite ironic that Kevin and Channing are talking about how the written part of trying to get into their chosen colleges is so important, and Kevin, of course tied inescapably to the written word, hasn’t managed to write a thing for this

even if it turns out later that prophets were chosen off a pre-determined list, I’ve always liked the idea that essay writing stress and his own crazed need to write the perfect essay kinda weakened him up to being chosen for this task :P

* * *

the sketchy room that Sam and Dean use to crack open the clay around the tablet has those same patchwork windows with them different colours at random that I’m remembering from the set in the end of season 10 where Rowena was kept. I’m tentatively dubbing the patchwork windows “don’t fuck with cosmic stuff you don’t understand” windows although I guess in this case at least they kind of had to :P

Definitely all about unleashing higher powers

* * *

I can’t believe we get Sam and Dean in safety goggles twice in two episodes.

This is the sort of important synergy between writers I like to see. I miss Robbie and Edlund playing with each other >.>

Dean calls the tablet a “caveman lego” before they open it which is not even the only reference to prehistoric man this episode

Also Kevin seeing flashes of the tablet before we cut to title card reminds me so much of the season 8 title card I got very disoriented for a moment about what season we were in, so this episode is apparently 7x20, 7x21 and some time in season 8 :P

* * *

> EDGAR’s phone rings and he takes it out of his pocket. The display reads “Dick Calling.”
> 
> EDGAR  
> Strange, isn’t it, that someone would choose to be named “Dick”?

Okay that’s enough, I’ve decided without any further proof that Edlund is the one responsible for Dick’s name so 100% of all Dick jokes are his fault

* * *

The opening after the title card quickly bounces around Cas waking up (my smol ethereal child *pats his hair*), Leviathans, Kevin waking up and being reminded of his calling and finally Dean waking up - the Leviathans being literally the only ones who don’t wake up during these 4 scene changes. (Sam was already awake and sitting off to the side.)

I’m not sure exactly why this parallel except that Kevin is obviously being shoved into the fight, and Cas waking up is him being nudged to return to the fight, which will be his arc for the last 2 episodes he’s in this season - and the first time he’s linked to the tablets, the second of course being 8x17 and the angel tablet’s connection to him. Dean as the 3rd person focussed on is not connected in the same way Kevin or Cas are (I really like the speculations people have about Cas’s connection to the tablets/prophets being the one who has to protect them, perhaps without realising it’s his job, just that he’s called to do it) - of course Dean is the one who ends up stabbing Dick in the end so if he’s unknowingly linked to this arc in a way Sam isn’t, this moment of him being linked to Cas and Kevin being put on the job seals him as the other guy who’s going to be most closely linked to killing Dick and toppling the Leviathans…

* * *

There’s a giant cogwheel on the wall behind Dean when he’s washing his face… Linking him as a cog in the machine? To go with the other stuff I was saying about Team Get Dick waking up…

(we’ll work on a better name later :P)

* * *

> SAM  
> When we broke this thing open last night, every maternity ward within a hundred-mile radius got slammed. Looks like any woman in the last month of her pregnancy went into labor. 

… whoops

(is this why Jared’s kid was born while they were filming this specific episode?)

* * *

> DEAN  
> Rufus’ cabin, then?
> 
> SAM  
> Yeah.
> 
> DEAN  
> This time, I’m doing the shopping.

He is  _literally_  going to take this cake instead of pie thing to his grave. If you ever wanted to know about Dean Winchester and holding grudges…

HONESTLY 8x01 would have been so much better if Sam and Dean met again in the cabin and Dean looked around and was like “This reminds me of that time you brought me FUCKING CAKE INSTEAD OF PIE” and the bro fight for season 8 was just that.

Like, actually, this proves that Dean ASSOCIATES the cabin with Sam’s BETRAYAL

So maybe if they’d met on neutral ground, that conversation would have gone so much better

* * *

[Tbh I am laughing so much at that I’m going to go post that as its own thing… ](http://elizabethrobertajones.tumblr.com/post/142295606818/7x03-x-7x21-dean-rufus-cabin-then-sam-yeah)

* * *

Okay but Cas put on the trenchcoat again between waking up and now and I doubt Meg would have encouraged him to do it… I think this set of his clothes, with the hospital pyjamas on under the trenchcoat, is very symbolic of his place in the fight at the moment. He’s upright and making a token effort - he’s still CONNECTED to events and he knows it - but at the core of things he’s just not ready or I guess fully part of the story again yet, so he doesn’t make more than this sort of gesture of participation…

This is the sort of way I feel Dean would be interpreting it anyway, rather than for Cas personally it goes much deeper and he is sort of intentionally incomprehensible in some ways at the moment even if there is a method to the madness… 

but tbh look I know I’m Destiel trash but tell me that every wardrobe decision Cas makes (when he has the luxury of choice) between taking back the trenchcoat in 7x17 and season 9 aren’t all entirely for Dean. (Claire is the first person aside from Dean to have any impact on how Cas chooses to dress :P)

Obviously to Cas things are much more complicated, going deep into his own guilt and regret and hampered by this temporary insanity to do much about it

but like, from the outside POV and I guess a little of what Cas is projecting, this is what it comes down to?

And I think Cas knows something big is going to go down and after Dean gave him back the trenchcoat and made it his link to the “old Cas” Cas himself has something of a safety blanket with it as well… Cas’s whole thing for the end of the season is neatly summed up in his “don’t like conflict” and running away thing, and he does earnestly try to be helpful in his very small ways and so something like putting the trenchcoat back on is this very token gesture he can make

(And it’s actually this that upsets Dean the most when you look at how he reacts to Cas)

… I’m getting way way ahead of myself but on the other hand I am brimming with feelings >.>

* * *

Cas is just so still while he’s looking out the window :( He spends a lot of this episode either completely still or very fidgety and it always affects me… 

* * *

An awful lot happens in the little bridging moment when Sam and Dean get to the hospital:

> DEAN  
> We raced all the way here, and now I don’t know. I can’t say I’m fired up to see what’s left of the guy.
> 
> SAM  
> You think he remembers at all?
> 
> DEAN  
> That, and I’m guessing whatever kind of hell baggage he lifted off of your plate. It’s not gonna be pretty.
> 
> ORDERLY  
> Hey. Excuse me, gentlemen, but it’s way past visiting hours.
> 
> MEG  
> It’s okay, Abel. I’ve been expecting them.

I went to the transcript mostly to double-check that Meg called the orderly “Abel”… Of course, we’re sort of in-between that plotline’s relevance at the moment but it’s interesting to have another mention of it (I swear it’s all been tided over by Edlund dropping one quick line about Cain and Abel in 6x20 and nothing until this guy’s name…) I mean obviously it means next to nothing in context here, except that the Cain and Abel thing is pretty much the baseline conflict of the show metaphorically or literally after season 9. So always interesting to collect the references to it.

As for the rest… Aaaaah Dean’s nervousness about seeing Cas again. Just saying that he’s nervous of seeing him outright, and one last moment of concern for Cas before we enter the hell of their dynamic this episode (I am so emotional about the end of season 7 years later don’t look at me) - this of course followed by them going in and meeting Cas and Cas pulling out one of the rare “hello Dean”s that belatedly in season 11 I have realised are more of a fanfic trope like “bitch/jerk” because [he says it  _nine times_](http://elizabethrobertajones.tumblr.com/post/139184909426/strengthcas-hello-dean-nine-times-thats)? That’s like just over once a season >.> Anyway it’s the Definitive Cas Thing and at least with Casifer and this, are used horrifically against Dean. He’s almost hopeful that Cas is actually fine when they walk in and see him and Cas says that, because like with Cas putting on the trenchcoat, it’s a semblance of the old Cas, the way things were with them before, that phrase symbolic beyond its relatively few times it’s said…

Annnd then Cas isn’t okay and he does the “pull my finger” thing and you have one of those “you can see the exact moment his heart breaks” things with Dean realising that he’s still not got Cas back… >.>

* * *

> CASTIEL  
> Yes. Of course. Oh. Outside today, in the garden, I followed a honeybee. I saw the route of flowers. It’s all right there, the whole plan. There’s nothing to add. 

Cas loving Creation :’) 

And as part of his whole pacifist thing right now, the “nothing to add” is a neon sign to where he’s at right now… If you look at 6x20 -> here this is basically Cas saying “done meddling let’s just appreciate the world as it is” … of course he’s seeing on the very tiny level how it’s running itself and overlooking the fact that ravenous monsters are going to eat everyone if he doesn’t help and so the same ecosystem he’s praising is actually broken, but you know, not 100% functioning right now and that’s sort of the point of his later discussion with Dean over the Sorry! game :P

So this is much more about how Cas feels personally: how he doesn’t want to be involved any more… Linking him to Creation and then having him sort of step back and say “nah it’s running fine without me aren’t we all glad I’m not God any more trying to think of things to add or change” quickly establishes in Cas’s metaphor talk of this episode exactly what his damage is and how he stands on what he’s done

* * *

> CASTIEL  
> You were the ones. Well… I guess that makes sense.
> 
> DEAN  
> What makes sense?
> 
> CASTIEL  
> If someone was going to free the Word from the vault of the earth, it would end up being you two. Oh, I love you guys.

:’) TFW hugs!

Well okay Sam and Dean getting squished by an over-enthusiastic angel but shh

While this episode is pretty stand alone for feels all by itself, the whole discussion of Metatron has a ridiculous painful irony… Cas seems pretty happy to recognise Metatron’s handwriting and, throw in his glee when angels show up later in the episode for more depth on his attitude towards other angels, and I’m guessing this is like the one time anyone was ever actually happy to hear about Metatron doing anything in the history of ever. There’s obviously no plan/need to bring in Metatron now and we forget about him until the end of season 8 when Edlund re-introduces him but he’s discussed as a neutral/potentially helpful character all episode, with Dean having no idea he’s going to be personally murdered by him later, or Cas to end up hating Metatron with a sort of personal grudge like he’s never hated another angel before… 

And Sam over there still trying to get over saturday morning cartoons 

* * *

Also until proven otherwise I’m assuming Edlund was thinking about the movie Dogma when he wrote this and only having to actually introduce the character for real stopped his cross over fanfic :P

* * *

> CASTIEL  
> Uh… “Tree”? [He looks at SAM and DEAN.] "Horse”? “Fiddler crab”? I can’t read it. It wasn’t meant for angels. 

And again with Cas trying, this time his effort to be “helpful” obviously undermined by the fact it’s much more blatant he’s just pretending - not maliciously, I think he actually does want to help, and for some reason he really thought that trying to tell them what it was about when he had no idea was like an impulsive decision then “wait what have I done” and he rattles off more nonsense to cover his tracks and act sarcastic… his decision making process isn’t the best :P

Anyway also the whole thing where “it’s not meant for angels” is what I’ve also been talking about (probably too much) about the solution being handed to random humanity and it being for humanity to save themselves etc. Even if it comes from a higher power and Metatron wrote it, the answer is in Kevin showing up to help, not in going to find Metatron, and the tablets are all ostensibly FOR humans, even if the angel and demon tablets get squabbled over far more by their respective species.

* * *

Meg tries to get the tablet just for a look see, and the focus is a lot on Dean being like “BACK OFF” and snarly and protective of the tablet, but if you watch the corner of the screen you can see Cas making a nervous retreat from Meg’s grabby hands before Dean ever steps in, so this is actually Dean being really defensive of Cas and I think that’s lovely :’)

* * *

Anyway Cas gets an early start on constantly breaking the Word of God, as per like his entire life story from the first season we knew him. 

I swear Cas sneezing in this episode would be a metaphor

* * *

Dean appoints himself as going to look after Cas - they actually haven’t started seriously miscommunicating yet, but the roots of it are here as Dean tries to tell Cas 

> DEAN  
> Cas, please, we’re losing ground out there, okay? We need your help. Can you not see that?

and gets the sort of response from Cas talking about something entirely different not even wanting to think about the fight “out there” 

> CASTIEL  
> This is the handwriting of Metatron.

so that pattern of their interaction is established, just that Dean hasn’t perhaps realised how difficult the conversation will be. Also, again with Meg and Sam in the room it doesn’t get personal between Dean n Cas but as soon as they’re alone together the whole tone shifts.

* * *

Anyway Sam is left alone with Meg as a result of that decision and chooses to ignore her, but on the other hand is kind of that thing where Dean is off with the dude and Sam is once again paired with a female presenting character… 

> MEG  
> We both call, who do you think Cas will come to? I’m guessing me. You heard him – thorny beauty, blah, blah. I’m the saint who stayed with him. He owes me. His words.
> 
> SAM  
> Yeah, what about what he owes us?
> 
> MEG  
> Well, work on him a little. Maybe he’ll start crushing on you, too, hot stuff.

Honestly think Dean naffed off already just so this dialogue could happen without implicating him in it :P He and Meg already went toe to toe over Cas in 7x17 and this dialogue gets ridiculous when you look up a couple of episodes to the end of the season for real, since, as you’ll never get me to stop talking about, the whole thing concludes on Dean n Cas’s emotional arcs and how they reconcile and Cas goes to help Dean at the last moment. Never mind Meg ~handing back~ Cas to Dean.

Like, Sam vs Meg over Cas is a different story - and I mean we have the whole thing in 8x17 between them so there’s a nuanced thread here…

Only Meg doesn’t see Sam at all as a romantic rival between her and Cas.

Unlike Dean.

* * *

Some days I do wonder if Edlund sits around and just remembers what he did on Supernatural and starts cackling

* * *

And again:

> SAM  
> What are you gonna do with a broken angel? Don’t be stupid.
> 
> MEG  
> I’ll take power where I can get it. I’ve got myself to look out for.

She juxtaposes what she thinks Cas would think of her - that he owes her, that she’s looked after him - with her needing Cas as power and a weapon, something she already said to Dean in 7x17 (and accused him of the same) but this repeats her motivations, stated out of his earshot, that she has a mercenary interest in him as an angel. And again while we have Dean off with Cas trying to convince him to rejoin the fight it adds a surface layer where he and Meg are still paralleled in their relationship with Cas, with Dean seemingly using Cas too, if you ignore the buckets of emotional nonsense between the two of them.

* * *

I like how the Dean n Cas stuff is cut with the Silliest Chase Scene On The Show, Moose vs Kevin.

Like, that’s the level of nonsense you need to insert to make watching the DeanCas stuff remotely okay.

* * *

I already linked my tearing that scene to shreds moment up at the top of this so…

* * *

“I’m in advanced placement” is still hilarious. He is just SO not prepared for this life.

I mean it gets extremely tragic when you think about Kevin for any amount of time, but just the idea of this poor kid being dropped in it…

* * *

*gulps and wades into the Dean n Cas conversation*

Me right now:

We can do this, Dean. Come on. :P

* * *

Oh no. Sad music. Abort! Abort!

* * *

> “You realise you just broke God’s word.”

This scene starts on a great note. My general response to every line and action from this scene is “that’s got to be a metaphor.” In this case, we’re taking the entire conversation as a metaphor for Dean and Cas’s broken relationship, and this is how it starts: Cas broke God’s word. He rebelled against Heaven and the apocalypse arc is all about tearing up God’s script and picking free will. So one line into the conversation, and we’ve got the base of their relationship established; this was how they met, how they became friends, how, in the end, they were ultimately torn apart, when you factor in 6x20’s exploration of the knock on effects of tearing up the script. It’s all key Cas stuff, and in this case, Cas playing rough with the Leviathan tablet is a metaphor for all of that.

Cas just looks kinda sad, and Dean does his first step-back-and-try-again and sits down, backing off from the accusation and opening up the conversation properly.

The important thing here, by the way, is that Dean is seeking an apology for season 6, while Cas desperately wants to give it, and Dean is in no place to accept it, and Cas is in no place to meaningfully give it.

(I rambled a lot about the actual [path to forgiveness](http://elizabethrobertajones.tumblr.com/post/98410596963/campchitaquamemories-elizabethrobertajones) the show took, aka, how to  _not_  make season 8 entirely an endless loop of this scene over and over when it comes to their relationship, basically arguing Purgatory cleared the slate. If that’s the case this scene is setting up what needs clearing.)

Anyway.

> “It’s Sam’s thing, isn’t it? You, uh, taking on his cage match scars. I’m guessing that’s what broke your bank, right?”  
> “Well, it took everything to get me here.”  
> “What are you talking about, man?”  
> “Dean. I know you want different answers.”

Dean actually does know exactly how Cas ended up where and how he is - he wasn’t exactly absent in 7x17 when Cas cured Sam and they had to leave him behind with Meg. He knows that taking on the hell stuff from Sam incapacitated Cas completely. Him asking “how” seems to be a redundant question even for Dean.

Fortunately Cas isn’t answering Dean’s questions: his response doesn’t correspond with Dean’s question at all, and he then explicitly says,  _you want different answers_. Assume Cas is answering what Dean wants in the subtext.

So what does “Well it took everything to get me here” mean?

Dean’s first question is saying “Look at what’s wrong with you, Cas” without asking. Rather than get to the hard subject, and asks the redundant but actually less painful question than approaching Cas head on. It also serves as another plot reminder - Cas saved Sam, for Dean. One of the last things Cas said before the Leviathans was about finding some way to redeem himself to Dean, and the Sam thing was it. There’s a lot else going on that needs forgiveness, but for Dean, hurting Sam is the most unforgivable thing, and even then he’s already given and giving Cas second chances no one else would get. Cas taking on the full brunt of Sam’s pain himself, literally shifting the problem back to its source, and Dean facing that, is him asking by way of the obvious, “This is what you did to yourself for me to fix the Sam thing.”

“It took everything to get me here,” is probably in reference to all the factors that led to Cas nearly being back on the path to forgiveness. Factors mostly including Sam’s appeal to Cas to come back and let them fix it, the involvement of Death in setting things up so Cas could try and let go of the Purgatory souls, as well as all the stuff between Dean and Cas from 6x20 onwards where Dean appeals to Cas, then Cas’s death, resurrection, and Dean once again finding Cas and bringing him to Sam. Each event is against all odds but was Sam or Dean or both working to try and draw Cas back for the sake of their friend (and with some help from Bobby :3), and this is Cas appreciating that they made this effort for him - probably an important part of his decision to take on the scars.

So that part of the exchange is basically “Look what you’ve done to yourself [for me to fix Sam].” “Yes but it was done to redeem myself to you.”

On with the conversation:

> “No, I want you to button up your coat and help us take down Leviathans.”

Hah, coats. Ha. Destiel. Ha ha ha. Season 7. Ha.

Okay, Dean-keeping-the-trenchcoat aside, Cas’s coat is sort of symbolic from his de-coating at the beginning of season 7 onwards of Cas’s state. Dean keeps it in remembrance of Cas; giving it back to Cas after his coat-less Emmanuel phase goes along with Cas’s memory coming back. They keep using the metaphor consistently after this - season 8, Cas recreates his old outfit to show he’s back to himself (much appreciated by Dean), season 9 he loses the coat when he becomes human, gets a replacement coat that’s different with the stolen grace (and as that fades out at the beginning of season 10 you see him take the coat on and off in much the way we see his grace flickering as he tries to heal himself). Here, we’re in early days of Coat Metaphor, but it’s got to come from somewhere. :P How about Dean asking Cas to button up his coat - become normal angel Cas that he once knew, who’s a useful friend who can fight beside him.

Leviathans were always metaphorical monsters; obviously the blatant plot thing was as a metaphor for corporate greed and all that jazz, but on a personal level they were a metaphor for the depression and helplessness that they went through in this season. So Dean asking Cas to come help him defeat the metaphor-villains of the seasons with him is a pretty straightforward metaphor for their reconciliation making them happier I think.

> *long helpless stare from Cas*  
> “Do you remember what you did?”  
> *longer, more helpless stare*

And Cas reaches for the “Sorry!” board.

Cas does remember, and being prompted about that leads him to try and make his apology. He can’t say it with his own words because he still hasn’t reached that point, but he  _wants_  this to be over, and he wants to make things better to Dean, and his remorse is evident. But he can’t fully mean it like this. _  
_

And so he wordlessly holds up the boardgame, hoping it can convey it for him when he can’t. Which, obviously, is not the proper way to offer an apology.

Cas sets the boardgame up with magic, trying to rush into the apology by not taking the time to open the board, lay out all the pieces, etc (just like how in this conversation they’re not saying a LOT of stuff: they’re not laying all the cards on the table). Instead he dumps it all on there ready to go and expects the Sorry! to happen like this. 

> “Do you want to go first?”

Of course it takes two to play Sorry!: Dean doesn’t just have to acknowledge Cas’s reasons to apologise, but while he didn’t exactly break the universe as per Cas in season 6, their personal relationship was terrible for the entire season, even before Dean found out about the betrayal. Mommy Dearest has multiple moments where Dean demeans Cas, and right up to Cas’s death, Dean keeps on calling him a child. There’s other stuff from Cas’s side suggested especially in 6x20: Cas felt like Dean could have extended him some trust over his plan, and while, you know, terrible idea, Cas’s fault over much of it, blah blah, he’s still personally feeling like Dean didn’t trust him as part of the problem and we can’t invalidate how he feels even if we don’t fully support what Cas did and he himself acknowledged his faults in going along with the plan.

Last time Cas and Dean talked (that one other time Cas was just Cas in season 7) Cas said, “We didn’t part friends, Dean.” Asking Dean to go first is suggesting there are things he could say - smaller things than what Cas might, perhaps, but things which are still about the cornerstones of their friendship regarding trust and how Dean sees and treats Cas, which they could smooth over.

This is the first part of their conversation, and has basically set up all the groundwork for what lies between them and that “Sorry!”

We cut back to Cas and Dean after a brief bit with Kevin fixing the tablet (probably not symbolic down to this scene…) and they’re clearly a few rounds into the game now. The scene starts with Dean holding up a tiny “Sorry!” card, and then grudgingly moving his piece back a few steps (assuming normal boardgame conventions where you move left-right as if reading as default movement order). It seems like this conversation is going well. :P

Cas is talking Neanderthals and poetry, musing on the chance that humans won. I’m not 100% on the metaphors here, except that it is showing Cas’s age and appreciation for small, wonderful things in the world. He’s enamoured with creation, and his words about how it was modern humans who won and “ate the apple, invented pants…” bringing it back around to the Biblical story of how humanity got its apparent kickstart, and, again, sort of leads back to where they are: if Swan Song was the end of the script, Adam and Eve is the start of it: the beginning of the story. The context is pretty huge here, at least as far as Cas’s issues run. Him reflecting on ancient history and pre-history is a sign of how huge and abstract his history is, leaving you looking at the guy in front of Dean and… Yeah, long road. Faint whispers of 6x20 and Cas telling you his story again.

> “Cas, where can we find this, uh, Metatron? Is he still alive?“   
> “I’m sorry, I think you have to go back to start.”  
> *Dean scowls, resentfully moves his piece back*  
> “This is important.”  
> *Cas just gestures the boardgame again*  
> *Dean angrily makes another move*

Dean tries too hard to press Cas for current plot information, clearly fed up of playing this game, but Cas still wants to work on the apology, and so he tells Dean that he’s got to try harder and work through Sorry! before they can talk about anything else.

Here’s a great line from Dean:

> “I think Metatron could stop a lot of bad. You understand that?”  
> “We live in a ‘Sorry’ universe.” (Cas gestures with a Sorry! card as he says the word). “It’s engineered to create conflict. I mean, why should I prosper from your misfortune?”  
> *Cas does a move which puts the last of Dean’s pieces back to start since he’s been busy sucking at Sorry! while trying to talk to Cas*  
> “But these are the rules, I didn’t make them.”

Possibly some of this is largely to suggest that the boardgame has been a metaphor all along (gasp!). Cas, as per the rest of this season, is avoiding conflict, and here he lays out his current philosophy on why he’s not fighting. It’s existential and a sort of defeat that comes from knowing, as this conversation reminds us, how the universe works on every level. Cas has seen it all and he knows how it goes and right now that’s got him completely beaten down, and not inclined to do anything about it when Dean comes to him with another problem.

Anyway Dean is finally going to start to address some of his issues with Cas and starts to get openly angry at last:

> “You made some of them. When you tried to become God. When you cut that hole into that wall.”  
> “Dean… It’s your move.”  
> “Screw the damn game!”  
> *Dean throws the board on the floor and slams his hand on the table*

I should note that basically we see Cas move once while making his symbolic point to about 3 or so moves from Dean: Cas is moving off screen and it’s not really been about his moves at this point while Dean is the one trying to control the conversation. Once Dean reaches the point in the conversation where they’re talking for the first time about the deep hurt between them - the stuff that really needs the genuine apology, Cas’s avoidance of it and the fact that he’s not participating, using the Sorry! game as a cover for his actual apology, becomes all that more clear, and Dean is having none of it now it’s turned serious.

They’ve held pretty level eye contact through this (Cas’s is so consistent it’s hard to tell when it’s been his turn in the game) but now he looks down at his lap and can’t even try to raise his head.

> Dean tries to calm himself, and says, “Forget the game, Cas.”  
> Cas looks up. “I’m sorry Dean.”  
> “No. You’re  _playing_  ’Sorry’.”

Which, uh, it’s sort of hard to tell where the metaphor ends there. :P *she jokes because the other option is crying and this line, everything about it, is the reason this is my favourite scene in the entire run of the show*

Dean sounds on the very of angry tears here - he’s choked up and furious and miserable and uurgh I hate this scene. This is where Dean realises that Cas can’t apologise, not in the way Dean wants him to. Not in the meaningful way. I think he was going to give him a chance to apologise, and hear it, but Cas refusing to help, and only wanting to play the boardgame, makes Dean realise how out of it Cas is - and how anything he says right now can’t be taken as fully sincere, as right now Dean realises this isn’t his Cas - his expression is one of searching over Cas’s face, trying to understand him, and realising he doesn’t see Cas there, not the one he used to rely on. Not the one he wants to hear making the apology. It takes him the rest of the season to reconcile this, and only then does he actually get his Cas back, and even inspire this Cas to fight alongside him again.

(brief cut to Kevin and Sam where the angels show up)

Then we get the bit where Cas is on the floor clearing up the game, and Dean is sitting watching him and scowling hard enough to set Cas on fire.

[There’s one post I found in my tag which relates to this part in particular](http://elizabethrobertajones.tumblr.com/post/108839004728/filleretive-osricspiritanimal). The interesting bit from [castiel-knight-of-hell](http://tmblr.co/mMtgYj5tcwG9-zK3OZXIyzg) is this:

> at a con someone asked why Cas had used his angel powers to set up the game but didn’t use them to pick it up. Misha said he didn’t know why
> 
> As a writer this scene made perfect sense to me. The passive character needed an excuse to retreat from the person showing aggression, and needed to busy himself with something as a way to avoid the conversation Dean was so intent on having. It’s like when a parent is yelling at a child and that child gets really focused on the picture they’re coloring. They don’t know how to respond to the yelling, they want the encounter to end, so they focused on a task to help them wade out the storm without falling apart and possibly making the parent even angrier

It’s a good reading for the dynamic going on here, I think.

Cas trying to clear up the mess of the game is symbolic of a lot of pointless tidying - the effect the game apology has is pointless clearing up. Saying sorry over and over but it not meaning anything, not in the way it’s supposed to. The dynamic puts Cas in a deeply subservient position with Dean judging him, and it’s here we can see clearer than in the previous parts that a great deal of the problem here is that Dean’s got a huge wall up that the sorrys are bouncing off: he himself is not ready yet to hear the words Cas has to say: he is as removed from being able to accept the apology as if Cas were his normal self and offering it whole-heartedly. The complete failure to work the situation out results in this: the game thrown on the floor, communication broken down, and Dean sulking and angry, Cas scrabbling to make it right in too-small gestures that don’t measure up to the weight of the situation.

From this the scene ends with the mood breaking into something tragic in an entirely different way as Cas gets excited about the arrival of the angels.

 

* * *

I somehow manage to always forget how terrible raw Destiel is when you encounter it at the source. Like, all the gifs and fan fic and art in the world are powered by the electrifying feeling that starts in the scenes between them… Which makes watching the ship defining scenes something akin to sticking a fork in a plug socket

(Look season 11 is long. Season 7 is longer. I’ve been in a DESERT)

* * *

Once again, it sort of seemed like Dean might go wrangle Cas into helping them right away but he ends up taking a huge breath and going to talk to Cas, and when he does it’s to talk to Cas about how he is, and showing so much concern. I mean I’m not saying he isn’t impatient and angry, because that’s what bubbles up in him in this conversation, but the tearful concern about Cas that he opens with… Aaargh.

* * *

He just wants Cas back. :(

* * *

This is also as far as I can recall the first really intense time game imagery is used? I remember a chess set a while back, but considering there are a gajillion of them in Carver Era I do think they’re more a part of the consistent visual language in seasons 8 onwards… I mean the “Sorry!” metaphor is the most blatant metaphorical game on the show to the point where it all feels so crushingly obvious to me I hardly know what to say about it (still managed a v long meta on it in the past, see above :P), but I suppose after this it means that games are obviously and specifically ascribed a meaning when they show up from here on out thanks to it being so heavy handed…

* * *

The sad music plays over the entire conversation FYI, it wasn’t just introducing it. It’s all tailored to this. And fades away when we get back to Kevin, Sam and Meg

* * *

Aw Kevin touching the tablets for the first time and fixing them. 

Cut from that to Cas talking about the Neanderthals… Now it makes a bit more sense (if you read that meta - otherwise pretend I’ve always known what I’m talking about)… With the theme of humanity sort of being bequeathed the tablets, Cas talking about humanity in the extremely long run of not even knowing originally who would win the struggle to be the dominant species on earth kind of gives us a perspective on the tablets, how they were almost tailored for humanity, perhaps because on seeing us from the fish that there were big plans for all the way to winning this prime seat, the whole fact that the Leviathan’s plan is framed as usurping us from the top of the food chain then at least in the context of this season and the tablet’s use and purpose and backstory, Cas rambling incoherently about prehistory has some context…

* * *

> CASTIEL  
> But in the end, it was you – the [CASTIEL moves a marker] homo sapiens sapiens. 

Dean “Humanity” Winchester confirmed.

* * *

Thinking of that, welcome to the most ominous lines uttered:

> DEAN  
> I think Metatron could stop a lot of bad. You understand that?
> 
> CASTIEL  
> We live in a “sorry” universe. It’s engineered to create conflict.

Knowing what we know, the fact that Metatron not only CAUSED a lot of bad, but literally engineered all the conflict and was the surprise big bad of next season and the knows full well he’s the big bad of the one after that… Cas (and maybe Edlund at this point :P) can’t know that Metatron is going to become such a cause of strife, but in hindsight Cas’s response comes as the perfect warning to engaging with him.

* * *

Aaaand here comes the anger:

> CASTIEL  
> But these are the rules. I didn’t make them.
> 
> DEAN  
> You made some of them. When you tried to become God, when you cut that hole into that wall.

I suppose in the long term it’s better to get it all out there :P

* * *

> DEAN  
> What?
> 
> CASTIEL  
> Sam. He’s talking to angels.

*moans sadly from where I am lying on the floor*

However! I was talking about how the end of 6x20 switched Cas from the whole “peace or freedom” thing to “angel vs human” as his primary conflict, and as I said a few times when mentioning it (he hasn’t been on screen a whole lot so I feel the need to recap this a lot - probably not any more once we hit Carver era and this theme is so much clearer for him all the time) he starts off on this theme obviously waaaaay up the angel end of the scale. And he’s STILL working through it although now in season 11 he’s worked his way much more down the human end of the scale… This is a thing that is actively developing for Cas all the time. Well, up to 11x10 anyway >.> But here we have Cas’s first onscreen interactions with angels since 

> HESTER  
> You smote thousands in Heaven. You gave a big, scary speech. Then you were gone. What the hell was that?! 

and so Cas looking thrilled to see angels is sort of showing his baseline expectation/emotion about angels - unfiltered thanks to his current mental state. 

And of course, because this theme wouldn’t be a theme without conflict, by the end of this episode Hester’s going to try to kill him, because of course most of the encounters Cas ever has with angels they try doing that at some point or another. >.> But for Cas from now on the question is about his loyalties and his relationship to Heaven and, increasingly, his conflicting interest in humanity that he’s drawn to as well.

* * *

(Between those two bits, I was laughing at this:

> FEMALE ANGEL  
> Kill the demon and her lover.
> 
> MEG  
> That’s not how it – we’re not –

I love how Meg doesn’t want anyone to think she’d actually associate with Sam that way :P Like, she might be a demon but dammit she has some pride and standards!)

* * *

That to make it easier to bear Cas’s increasing desperation and voice cracking into Misha’s regular voice while trying to teach angels “pull my finger” since teaching them poetry didn’t work. >.>

I need to go get a fluffy beige cat and call it Cas and then hug it, brb, going to go investigate where I can adopt a cat at 10:17 at night

* * *

> DEAN  
> Hey.
> 
> Heads up, Sunshine.

Did- did he just call Cas “Sunshine”??

He’s been deliberately not in frame the entire time so we have no idea how much of this he overheard (he had to run up from the day room to get back up here), but presumably he at least was there long enough to draw the thing, and so he overheard enough to make him feel like the angels were really threatening or he just really didn’t like the way Hester was talking to Cas - Cas was talking for a long time before Dean showed up so he could have just heard how Cas was freaking out.

anyway yes he totally called Cas “Sunshine” because that’s a singular term not plural for all of them, and he was startling all the others… He wouldn’t apologise to Cas for doing it, so a “fair warning” (that was no warning at all) but addressed to Cas will suffice… 

Problems of needing to get rid of some angels while still liking at least one of the ones you’re going to have to unfortunately banish

Anyhow Cas is always associated with the sun (and aaaaah so soon after Charlie and her sunshine!) so this is 0% surprising except for the bit where I’d never realised this happened before so I also just died 

* * *

> KEVIN  
> So, these Leviathans – these monsters are real. And angels with wings?
> 
> SAM  
> No. Uh… no wings. No anything.
> 
> DEAN  
> No junk. Junkless. 

Guess who is still pissed with his ex-husband?

Really Dean, there was no need to bring that up 

* * *

Meg’s also wearing her jacket over her nurse scrubs… I think she put it on when she was attempting to leave earlier but I forgot to mention it… Anyway, like Cas, old identity reasserting itself except that the nurse thing was always a ruse unlike how Cas is genuinely ill…  

* * *

Also their truck literally has angel warding painted on the front

* * *

Meg continues buying nothing but liquor and magazines (she’s changed back into her regular clothes entirely now while Cas stays in the pyjamas until 8x07 :P)

Sam buys 2 coffees, an indistinct bucket or two of something, a giant bag of pretzels, a box of Mac n Cheese and something I think may be cereal

considering these guys grew up in a car they do not have the best concept of car food

I am pretty sure the Biggersons’ advert from 7x02 is playing. It’s like a salad bar… but PIE!

Dean and pie this season though… so tragic.

* * *

I think the dog track might be a metaphor for the angels:

> CASTIEL  
> They’re from the Garrison – my old Garrison. Looks like Hester’s taken over. We were assigned to watch the earth. Often, it was boring. The wars were very boring and the sex – you know, the repetition. Anyway, I was, uh… I was their captain. Isn’t that strange?
> 
> SAM  
> Cas, why are they pissed at us now?
> 
> CASTIEL  
> [to MEG] You know, those racing dogs were absolutely miserable. They can only think in ovals.
> 
> DEAN  
> Cas, don’t make me pull this car over! Why are angels after us?

Cas still refusing to answer questions but his answers tell us more than he could ever say in a single sentence. 

And Cas has complained before about teaching critical thinking to angels in 6x20, so him seeing them as “can only think in ovals” fits very much with that sentiment. 

And it turns out the angels are trying to do just one thing that makes sense to them, following the old rules for what to do with a prophet - taking them out into the desert etc - whether that’s strictly the right thing to do or not. In the end Hester gets killed for this conflict of Cas’s, while Inias ends up a bit more willing to try things a different way and let Kevin go home.

* * *

> CASTIEL  
> Are you angry? Why are you angry? 

Cas misses the point here as well, assuming Dean is mostly angry about current developments, and honestly this conversation has pretty much everyone speaking at cross purposes to the point where looking at the transcript is practically incomprehensible without actor nuances and interruptions being obvious. 

> CASTIEL  
> That’s God and his shiny red apples. 

Again, the implication that humans using the tablets is more of a sort of test from God: like hey if you can use it successfully you earned it, but it’s not going to be made easy for you.

It’s interesting for the whole planet here, but perhaps more interesting for Sam and his arc with the Trials next season

* * *

> SAM  
> Yeah, you’re in our corner, right, Cas?
> 
> CASTIEL  
> No, I don’t fight anymore. I watch the bees.

See, THAT’s the answer to “why are you angry” - most of the dialogue only answers a question or addresses something from several lines ago, and Cas answers his own question here: Dean’s getting increasingly upset with having Cas in this state so much so it becomes his main emotional conflict in 7x23.

Since it gets addressed then this episode pretty much just stomps around making everything terrible between them to make things ready for 7x23 to fix :P

* * *

> CASTIEL  
> Let’s leave off angel-proofing sigils or I’ll be expelled, too. 

Thanks for answering that extremely obscure question no one actually asked but still satisfies my curiosity about random plot mechanics :P

* * *

Kevin names the sex torture dungeon :’) 

Casually linking up this with 8x17 and Cas saying he can hear them through the wall because he’s a celestial being with 8x22 and “your  _what_ ” when he finds out they have a dungeon and a lot of things are making sense since he’s upstairs right now

* * *

Sam and Cas talk!!!!!

Cas starts off initiating it, unlike the ridiculous dance Dean went through to have a conversation with Cas. Considering this is also half muffled with an emphasis on Meg being sneaky, the conversation is given a woeful amount of attention compared to the Dean n Cas stuff, and further undermined by it not even being the whole focus of this scene… 

Sam, beacon of being a Well Balanced Human now he’s currently got no mytharc going on and has the luxury of being Just Sam For Once In My Goddamn Life, raises his fears for Cas he had in 7x18, since of course being Sam he’s feeling guilty about this >.> That was spelled out earlier in the show but we don’t come back to it in this episode in the main text so that’s why Cas thinks he looks troubled anyhow.

> CASTIEL  
> What about me? You’re worried about the burden I lifted from you.
> 
> SAM  
> I think I was done for. Do you see Lucifer?
> 
> CASTIEL  
> I did at first. But that was… It was a projection of yours, I think, sort of an aftertaste. Now I more see… well, everything.

Sam’s immediate concern is with Lucifer, obviously because he’s scared Cas is going to have the visions try to kill him as well, but there’s something else under there too, either as a validation for his own experiences (as they’re suffering the same illness) or because there was a niggling fear that it was real Lucifer all along, as Sam struggled so much with what was reality and what wasn’t all season. Hearing how Cas is suffering is probably helping Sam come to terms with what he suffered,  _still_.

It’s resonant then that the fact Sam has clarity for the first time all season is also when Cas finds his clarity too… I just love this about them being so connected through this… They haven’t shared a lot, not in the same way Dean n Cas have, and for example when they have their once a season chat in season 9, they’re still talking about this as one of the most important things they shared… 

(Wait did Sam and Cas even have a once a season chat in season 8? Cas was really busy and off-screen a lot that season >.> I remember… Oh! Cas dropping by on Sam when Sam was sitting grumpily on that park bench. That was a very short conversation. >.>) 

> CASTIEL  
> It’s funny. I was – I was done for, too.
> 
> The weight of all my mistakes, all those lives and souls lost, I… I couldn’t take it, either. I was… I was lost until I took on your pain. It’s strange to think that that helped, but –

Cas confirming that him trying to run away in 7x17 was a borderline suicidal gesture as I was talking about at the time (I think paralleling his and Dean’s arcs this season?) and of course how Cas may have felt in that brief window before the Leviathans took over. AND maybe what inspired Cas to come back when Sam prayed to him at the start of the season, so they’re linked throughout in this respect, although Sam never WANTED to die. 

(his mytharc-y approach to every subplot means he always gets it one step removed. He had a mental illness that was going to cause him to die, but it was magic and Because Lucifer and so he acts as a metaphor of the same thing Dean and Cas are struggling with for real with no supernatural cause to their feelings… At least not in the extremely literal sense of Sam’s. This is also reminding me of how Sam’s visions in season 1 were queercoded with like “don’t ask don’t tell” said about them, in contrast to Dean just as a character being extremely bi the entire time :P)

Aaanyway we also don’t get a whole lot about Cas’s suicidal ideation - he’s going to seem pretty chill with Hester trying to kill him in a little bit, and it’s around in the background of season 8, only directly referenced once in 8x08 and hinted at in 8x07 for why he would have stayed in Purgatory and what would have happened to him if he did. The guilt about damaging Heaven stays with Cas to date: one of our last Cas scenes was Ambriel reminding him that his reputation is killing angels. Which of course is not long behind one of Cas’s worst decisions ever (how can it even be that “saying yes to Lucifer” is probably only in the top 3??)

Anyway, here I’d guess Cas feels less lost because he’s started his redemption arc, and this IS the first step to healing for Cas, even if it doesn’t look like it and it looks like a regression: less about how it affects Cas and more for the fact that it undid what he did to Sam, and therefore is much more about them rather than JUST Cas on his own. Which I think is what’s behind this:

> SAM  
> I know you never did anything but try to help. I realize that, Cas, and I’m grateful. We’re all grateful. And we’re gonna help you get better, okay? No matter what it takes.
> 
> CASTIEL  
> What do you mean, “better”?

Cas feels like he’s done something right for once by taking the damage from Sam, so the thought of taking it away by Cas’s current logic I guess feels like undoing it or ending his punishment prematurely (which I still think is how he felt about leaving Purgatory, both when he was refusing to go to Dean and after when he had been pulled out anyway)… Also would have to make Cas confront what other things he has to do to redeem himself, while here he’s sort of comfortably being punished for what he’s done… He’s aware he’s mad in that kind of tragic Shakespearean way and I guess really leaning into it as his redemption…

… while for Sam he has a very different approach and understanding of it and like Dean he wants Cas back to normal - for Sam’s own (unjustified but still existent) guilt about this and for Cas’s sake - so he’s making reassurances and putting Cas’s case on the table as a problem for them to deal with like they always do, while Cas just doesn’t see it that way… 

* * *

> KEVIN  
> This is all too much. What’s happened to my life? I’m just a kid from Michigan. I didn’t want to be a Word-keeper! 

*gently pats his hair*

> DEAN  
> Oh, I don’t know, man. What can I say? You’ve been chosen. And it sucks. Believe me. There’s no use asking “why me?” ‘Cause the angels – they don’t care. I think maybe they just don’t have the equipment to care. Seems like when they try, it just… breaks them apart. 

*yelling because I swear the gifsets always leave off the first part* You know, the bit where Dean’s supposedly talking about like, Hester or Inais or Metatron who whoever else is connected to KEVIN’S plotline and just wanders off into angsting about his ex-husband who is currently broken apart upstairs. I forgot the context was so clear that Dean really is harping obsessively on Cas being broken just like he said at the start he was scared to see what had happened to him, and now he’s super affected by it. I think he started off trying to speak from his experience of being jerked around in the apocalypse but when he started talking about the angels caring he thought of Cas and everything derailed in there and off he goes pulling some of the most heart-wrenching expressions Dean pulls when talking about Cas…

* * *

This episode just… really makes it so obvious Dean is in love with Cas I kind of hate it :P

* * *

Anyway! Meg does stuff! Kills demons! Proves she’s on their side! Or at least not going to betray them any time soon! Also points out that Crowley is the real problem and you’re going to regreeeet not killing him when you have the chance.

I want Meg to come back just for someone to tell her about Drowley in season 9/10 because she seriously, seriously needs that laugh. :P

Anyway Sam is the one who frees her, and again with the nice quiet Sam and Meg story going on in the background (jokingly, I swear he did it just because she seemed so repulsed at the suggestion they were lovers earlier, like, “hey, we agree on something! What!?” … also I don’t think she sexually assaults anyone else for the rest of her time on the show? She is considerably disarmed over the course of her season 7 appearances…)

She also has those very profound lines about having a cause, which fit well with the advice Dean has been getting all season about finding a reason to stay in the game. I mean, Bobby in an Edlund episode told Dean to find a reason to keep on going and not die young and stupid. I think since she is a positive example of that philosophy working it aligns her with Bobby, a positive figure in their lives and was therefore probably accidentally the best thing she could have said in terms of making Dean trust her a tiny smidgen more, at least enough to believe her in this instance and generally begrudge her presence the rest of the season. Even while Sam’s shown as the one moved enough to free her from the trap tying it into Dean’s themes of the season does its own work.

* * *

Yaaay the angels blow out the door like back in the end of 4x09. They were staying in a weird shack there to protect Anna - I think Ruby chose the location? It’s a sudden weird mirroring of that dynamic, with Hester as Uriel, Kevin as Anna… Although on the other hand Cas was most close to being portrayed as an antagonist in 4x09 for the few seconds he was on screen at the end and agreeing with Uriel… Perhaps it makes more sense to have Hester as the spectre of his past - this time he is the one defending a random person of interest to the angels from being taken by them, although they don’t intend to kill Kevin, like Cas grimly intended to do with Anna :P I suppose even with lower stakes, it just all goes to show how far he’s gone, since Hester has a few infamous lines about him here…

* * *

> HESTER  
> You have fallen in every way imaginable. 

Yeah I mean my Cas funko kept falling off the shelf which is why he and Dean now stare at each other from my desk…

:P

* * *

> DEAN  
> Whoa, whoa, whoa. Back off. We’re actually trying to clean up one of your angel’s messes! You know that.
> 
> CASTIEL  
> He’s right. An angel brought the Leviathan back into this world, and – and they begged him. They begged him not to do it.

This line from Dean is so weird I almost think it only exists to have Cas call Dean out on all the bitching about angels he’s been doing (”junkless” “just break apart”) and make it obvious Dean is talking about Cas whenever he gets grumpy about angels. Unless I’m having a really weird moment where Cas ISN’T right and correctly telling us what Dean is talking about? It seems weird Dean would talk about Cas in that way “one of your angels” unless even with Cas in the room he’s got so used to talking in obscure references to Cas he forgets not to do it when Cas is there?

Of course not like Cas is JUST calling out Dean - he’s showing tons of his own remorse and pain here, almost agreeing with Dean more than anything because he DOES blame himself… Dean’s let on in 7x17 he agrees Cas was doing the best he could resolving one side of the 6x20 fight, agreeing that Cas THOUGHT he was trying his best. Now Cas indirectly owns up to the fact that going the other way, he should have listened, letting Dean have HIS side of the 6x20 fight. It’s not perfect, but it does show them coming back to meet each other in the middle now time has passed and they can look at the fight more objectively…

* * *

Anyway by speaking up, Dean draws Hester’s wrath and it turns out she’s as pissed with Dean as she is with Cas, which, whoops. :P

Of course, the theme of the angels kinda blaming Dean n Cas’s relationship carries on - Naomi is up next season and we all know what she does with programming Cas to kill Dean. Metatron incited Cas’s army to turn on him over Dean (hich was a conflict Hannah struggled through for the fisrt part of season 10) And 11x02 had the angels torturing Cas implying what they thought he got up to with Dean… This is just such a stark moment because Hester’s accusation of “fallen every way” combined with “Castiel was lost when he laid a hand on you in hell” it puts Dean and Cas’s relationship in a very uncomfortable spotlight Dean mostly responds to by scowling and looking emotionally ravaged. 

it’s just… such a serious, painful moment, it’s nothing like any of the jokes about them but it makes it so clear how Dean and Cas are linked and that there is something about  _them_  together, that Cas’s whole story revolves around Dean… This moment messes me up somehow worse than the raking leaves thing >.>

* * *

Anyway then Cas dives in and pulls Hester’s attention away from Dean - perhaps taking responsibility for everything he’s done silently because Hester’s busy blaming Dean (I mean… Dean did kinda… make the guy rebel against Heaven… and Cas was all “I did it for you” in season 6… should we really play that game? :P)

But Cas does basically put himself in the line of danger to protect Dean in a subtle mirror of how he will briefly try and step between Dean and Dick in the final confrontation there… Cas says he doesn’t fight any more but he does use himself as a shield to protect his loved ones >.>

And of course he refuses to fight back while Hester is fighting him, because Cas. >.>

(I think this is different from him not fighting back in 10x22 as he was still trying to subdue Dean and didn’t have a death wish like he does here: the emphasis there was on him not wanting to hurt the one fighting him… Here it’s much more Cas doesn’t care, he’s happy to die, and of course after what he did to Heaven he feels he deserves it and that Hester’s anger is totally justified)

> HESTER  
> No more madness! No more promises! No more new Gods! 
> 
> HESTER  
> You wanted free will. Now  _I’m_  making the choices.

Edlund is trying to personally ruin my life with all this you know 

I almost wonder if Cas’s happiness in that moment was just for her, that she’d found her way to free will and was making this decision for herself… Like, it’s totally fucked up because everyone’s so unhappy and angry and she’s going to kill Cas, but it’s like “yay they can be taught!” even in that moment.

Meg then kills Hester and Cas does that thing where he watches intensely as the angel dies because he always watches them die (ugh) and even makes a point to kill them face to face if he has to, rather than from behind… I can’t help feeling Cas’s look of disappointment after is as much that Meg did it and hurt another angel, as that he didn’t get what he felt he deserved by being killed: especially if he was happy Hester had found her way to free will, then Meg kills her as soon as she’s embraced the concept and stopped “thinking in ovals” - it seems to be a consistently deadly POV for an angel to take, and exposure to Cas is dangerous >.> (For example I am now regretting mentioning Hannah and 11x02 :P) 

Anyway, he gives Meg this really awful sad/betrayed look

* * *

FORTUNATELY we’re actually at the end of the episode nearly. :P Kevin gives them their plot device, and the angels do something right for once (except for how choosing to do something “good” for humanity immediately will get them eaten and Kevin kidnapped >.> BUT LIKE FREEDOM OF CHOICE AND THEY USED IT)

Dean makes a comment about trying to find Meg to Cas and he makes a very snarky comment about her enjoying lying low, which furthers my weird feeling that Cas was super not happy with her killing Hester for whatever reason.

* * *

Then they read the note about the “bone of a righteous mortal” and as always I have a 0.3 second panic that they’re going to amputate Dean’s arm to get the bone for a weapon, especially since it’s Edlund’s fault we call him the Righteous Man

Anyway yay humanity having and important say in it: and the BEST of humanity. This is a very pro-humanity episode. Of course traditionally fallen angels are a bad thing (Lucifer being the main example, Gadreel one of the only others that would ever really count by a traditional definition and that was not even his choice? … and Anna I guess since I just remembered she existed a few notes ago :P) and then the other 2 are definitely monsters/demons, so it’s like, that light in humanity backed up by all the bad in the world? Idk.

* * *

And as always I always get a weird wibbly feeling about Dean taking a vial of Cas’s fresh blood because that has to feel really WARM and kind of super weird and he just HANDS it to Dean and I’ve never been sure if I should be grossed out or have a strange DeanCas reaction to it? :P

Anyway Dean looks really sad and asks Cas where he’s going so I feel like seeing him almost murdered AGAIN put some things in perspective for Dean… Obviously he stays kind of angry at Cas until the end of the season but he’s already moving on and healing and this is a bittersweet parting? They’re now definitely ready for their resolution. :D

* * *

*waves at the off-brand Ms Tran*

> EDGAR  
> Rock beats scissor. Leviathan beats Angel.

Rock paper scissors!!

(For some reason rock paper scissors is a key thematic main plot thing in season 11 so hey who knows maybe this old dynamic will show up… I’m still waiting impatiently to see if Leviathans get linked to Amara anyhow.)

I also love Leviathan as the rock and angels as the scissors, just for the imagery of it all. 

* * *

… I can not possibly talk about this episode any more. I’ve been at it for a not insignificant percentage of 3 whole days.


	22. 7x22

Or: this is technically a MotW

Seriously, give me a discussion of the weapon as a metaphor for the show’s format - with Gamble era wrapping up its very own special brand of metafiction this is going to make way for the much more elaborate cosmology of Carver era… Considering the broad theme from season 6 was “write your own story” this weapon is using all the elements to  _do_ that… Angels and demons and monsters oh my

* * *

tbh I normally watch the last three episodes of this season all in one go every time so I have a weird hazy feeling of no memory of this episode just because it’s crammed between two much more memorable episodes… Considering who the monster they go after is, I feel like this is such a Gamble era episode, but from Cas’s return there’s so much Carver era thematic stuff appearing already this honestly always felt like a throwback despite the fact I suppose they’re well within their rights to do this

the recap throwing back to Samuel and the early season 6 episodes with the alpha vampire just feel so weird and out of place here, especially with the very different approach to villains they have this season, with Dick always in modern offices and the Leviathan operating in human structures… Throwing back to villains having abandoned asylums and sketchy warehouses is so last year (and I guess since I remember laughing at that aesthetic in Caged Heat, where it felt like a proto-Carver era episode, this gap in season 7 of none of that stuff, means when we get back to the “usual” hangouts for main villains there’s been this pause in the style hence me associating it so strongly with season 8 onwards)

* * *

The interviewer talking about Dick in the opening really emphasised called him a “giant” in the motivational speaking world and tbh I would have laughed so hard if we ever got human media calling them “leviathan” for any reason

I’m also remembering in 7x01 Cas did try to wipe out all the motivational speakers and once again I’m laughing that he missed one - or that Cas’s rampage unfortunately fostered conditions for Dick to be on the rise (oh god) before the Leviathans ever got to him

* * *

Things that make me cackle every time:

> DICK ROMAN  
> Which is why we are diving whole hog into what keeps Americans living longer… and tasting better.
> 
> GLORIA  
> You do, of course, mean to say the  _food_  will be tasting better.
> 
> DICK ROMAN  
> That’s exactly what I mean.

*Dick looks directly into the camera and smiles hungrily at the watching audience*

he’s preeetty confident the food zombies will be too distracted to care, but I mean, imagine the memes if we were all watching this IRL on our TVs and Dick was a real politician/businessman :P

* * *

Okay this entire episode appears to be Dick Roman because we’re 3 scenes in and it’s been nothing but him, which is probably why I have no memory of this because I always lump it into 7x23 and assume that’s when all the main plot stuff happens

I am so sorry, Dabbflin. I am the worst watcher of this show ever

although scene after scene of slick interviews and business talk and so on does really prove my point about the different aesthetics

* * *

his conference room has very similar looks to Naomi’s office, which is an interesting parallel - at least with all the random lights. Hers evoke programming cards from old computers… Somehow I’m getting a Space Invaders vibe from Dick’s, with the way they are bolts falling towards Earth. The big picture of Earth even gives a dizzying impression of looking down on it from above: very much the room of someone obsessed with world domination but also this sense of being in Heaven and looking down on Creation.

Since Naomi’s office riffs off Dick’s and not the other way around I guess I’d say they were just improving on this concept - hers has had much more meta written about it even setting aside the controversial lighting stuff from 8x17. But I think it’s interesting that this is the root of that design, since it makes the position of Heaven to Earth that much more clear? And of course Naomi has a last moment revelation that she should have been safeguarding humanity, and then there literally are lights falling from the sky to Earth, so this accidentally contains the most dramatic visual of 8x23 long before it occurs, as well as weirdly summarising Naomi’s arc.

So that’s a thing :P

* * *

The tablet put on the table looks so out of place and old as well… Further emphasising how it’s not “for” Dick - he contrasts it by putting a laptop next to it - the modern day equivalent large rectangular object knowledge is stored in :P

And more Kevin being connected to words - I was saying he hadn’t written his admission essay, and now Dick’s trying to bribe him with a recommendation letter

* * *

Meanwhile: Dean hogging his favourite sofa, baffled by Kevin’s translation. He suggests just going right for Dick with no thought for what happens after. Sam has more logical concerns about the aftermath… Never mind the ongoing discussion about their approach to things from 11x18 that’s still happening on my blog today (not quite the same when they’re talking about rushing in here, but along the same lines and consistent enough characterisation), but for this season, of course Dean goes rushing right in and stabs Dick, and Sam is left to deal with the consequences so here’s some foreshadowing :P

* * *

Laughing because Bobby jump-scares Dean by appearing behind him in the bathroom mirror, only Dean’s reaction is so chill compared to Cas doing the same in like … 8 episodes at this point

YIKES I have just realised this week is Purgatory for me if I do an episode a day as I was for a while

*not ready*

Anyhow Bobby has the most untrue “I’m fine” we’ve had for a while. He also ghost-smashes the mirror behind Dean as they argue, and here we get to the sad and uncomfortable part of Bobby’s arc paralleling his going vengeful with the very things he transcended in life and 7x10 showed so clearly how he was better than his father… Now he’s accidentally having violence displays when disagreeing with Dean, and Dean’s nervous to have him around and worried about Bobby becoming violent and uncontrollable… 

(This is part of why 7x10 is SO MUCH worse to rewatch after watching the rest of the season - seeing Bobby succumb to ghost-related rage very clearly shows exactly which path he went down and casts the episode as a warning in hindsight >.>)

* * *

There’s an empty coffee machine in the cabin and a TON of empty beer bottles… Sam and Dean are both powering through this research period with alcohol. 

Also, lil worried Sam’s done that thing where you have a glass of paint water and a mug of tea except with beer and… 

… Cas’s blood

* * *

> SAM  
> They make food additives, namely high-fructose corn syrup. That crap is in – well, it’s in just about everything – um, soda, sauces, bread.
> 
> DEAN  
> Don’t say “pie.”
> 
> SAM  
> Definitely pie.

NOW IT’S PERSONAL

This cabin is so intrinsically linked with Dean being denied pie it’s tragic

* * *

Heya Crowley! 

He immediately expresses an interest in who translated the tablet for them, which given the later reveal he has a demon tablet just knocking about actually, as his first response to having a plot catch up, makes sense in hindsight that he knew all along that Kevin was going to be a valuable resource for him and it was the writer intent to show that. I am inclined to think that Carver era at least kicked off with having a plan that stretched back into season 7 and this was actually laying down some little hints for what was to come… Maybe not all the plot pieces but I’ve always felt like there’s a shopping list they had for stuff to pull over to season 8 and, Cas being brought back sooner aside, they seem to start getting these pieces from 7x21 onwards

* * *

tbh, because I’m still laughing about how season 1 was like “vampires are nearly extinct!!”, the fact the alpha vampire is still out there would explain why vampires are such a default monster, especially when Dean is just stress-killing stuff in season 10 for example. I know some of their appearances imply they’ve been doing their thing much longer than just the last few years (I mean we have BENNY soon and his lot (aside from him, though he was NOT killed by hunters) all casually survived this whole “thought they were extinct” thing which is just hilarious that hunters really did not have their shit together back then the longer time passes and more vampires who’ve existed all this time are revealed) 

But if Cas killed ALL the other alphas, then vampires are the only species of monster which has that advantage, while the others don’t? The alphas seemed to be charged with/inspired to create more and more monsters all the time, while other monsters are basically just left to deal on their own and we meet them usually on their own or in a tiny family group, carving a nook for themselves in the modern world… I remember the MotW in 11x04 was interested in creating more in a time of panic about the Darkness, but by and large monsters keep themselves to themselves and it’s eating people that draws attention rather than creating large numbers of new monsters? The werewolf story in the start of season 8 actually has the werewolf who started the whole thing not wanting to have turned anyone and I think he lost control and did? I don’t really remember that one’s plot too well…

/unfinished thoughts about monsters

* * *

Anyway knee to face pan up of Dean just because HELLO RED JACKET <3

I also, seeing as I’m remembering the end of season 1, I recall laughing about Meg bursting in with one in 1x21 and I was giggling about how Dean, Meg and Ruby are the Red Leather Jacket club. Considering they only just saw Meg last episode, this is making me feel weirdly like Dean could have taken some style tips from her.

I’m just imagining a weird truce where they’re reading her magazines together and then they hear Sam coming back and they leap apart from where they’ve been sitting on the sofa gossiping and flicking through the style pages like “nope this never happened  _never tell a soul_ ” 

I am still laughing at how affronted Meg was that anyone would think she and Sam were lovers, so I think she and Dean would hate that anyone would mistake them for friends as well. 

Even if they’re part of the elite squad of Red Leather Jacket people on the show

Tbh this should have been the early warning about demon!Dean we never saw coming and it is a crime against humanity he didn’t have the red leather jacket while demon!Dean just so I could grin at him, Meg and Ruby sharing this weird trait.

(Apparently the jacket was not meant to be this red? Which makes it all the funnier to me)

* * *

Sam and Dean step into the (off-brand, still) Gas n Sip to discuss Bobby, and talking about moving him on etc… Once again the store is extremely prominently yellow - as a warning and I remember 6x11 especially had a store that was ridiculously yellow, in that case directly linked to death/Death… so discussing the need to move Bobby on to stop him going vengeful fits very much in that sort of thing. AND the yellow is associated with Dick and his plans from 7x20 - the guy squirting too much mustard as well making a heavy point about putting too much crap on food while the main plot is now “food additives are evil”.

To top it off, Sam gestures at Dean with the safe to eat bananas (I guess, natural food being the same colour as the bad food, distinguishable only by knowledge? In the same way the food that has always been their comfort has been turned against them)

Yellow doing a LOT of work here

* * *

How DID Sam and Dean locate this place? I guess they were already in town by the Gas n Sip scene so they had until nightfall to ask around town like “hey any big creepy abandoned buildings that sometimes have the lights on still? Any… I dunno, reclusive rich people who have a suspicious amount of visitors and traffic going to and from the place?”

How are you not totally obvious. 

They could have just driven around until they saw a “vampire-y” house and staked it out on the off-chance

* * *

anyway ew gross dead vampires

* * *

Hey Jenna - I mean, um… whoever you are here. (Emily, apparently) You can tell them apart by the eyebrows.

Aw, Dean gave her his jacket. :D 

She’s such a tragic character in this episode, though… A sort of early, worse-off version of Alex. She’s got a bit more job security of not being turned into a vampire, but I’m pretty sure she’s barely left that room and the whole dressing her as a little girl still and having her in a lurid pink room is so creepy. 

I can’t remember if they saved her or not at the end of this episode >.>

* * *

> DEAN  
> Hey. [He snaps his fingers in front of the MAN’s face and sits down next to him.] Hold out your arm. We need your blood.
> 
> SAM  
> Dude!
> 
> The MAN holds out his arm.

(I’m laughing at the product placement with this guy… Plucky’s t-shirt, a “slushy mushy” drink, sitting on a Biggerson’s advertising bench…) 

No but this is such a sinister moment. Obviously the leviathan food zombies are made to be compliant so they’ll walk right into the slaughterhouses, as well as being delicious, plump and stupid, they’re also very obedient and have no sense of it being weird for some scary looking guy like Dean to just demand some blood from him. Sam trying to be diplomatic is met with a blank stare, but as soon as the guy is given a direct order he just does it… The worst bit is Dean intuitively guessing that this will work and in a sense behaving exactly like the monsters would - talking in a way that the guy responds as if addressed by his Leviathan overlords or whatever.

(Dean in his Purgatory jacket does give me a lot of feels about monster!Dean and that journey he’s going to go through in Purgatory… He also calls himself a warrior in the opening of this scene, and is complaining about what he eats… the whole idea of the monsters being strong because they eat people is mirrored with Dean feeling like he draws strength from junk food and pie, while Sam’s alternative healthy food lacks the ~spirit~ of what Dean needs to survive, even if scientifically there’s no reason Dean would die from eating healthy food :P)

Also there’s the rather threatening-flirty way Dean throws an arm around the bloke while they’re stealing his blood…

* * *

> DEAN  
> When they hauled you off to vamp camp, do you remember how long the drive was?
> 
> EMILY  
> We left at night. Got in before dawn.
> 
> SAM  
> So, six, seven hours?
> 
> EMILY  
> I think so, yes.
> 
> SAM  
> Do you remember any highways?
> 
> EMILY  
> No. We only took back roads.
> 
> SAM  
> Okay. So, figure they averaged 45 miles per –
> 
> DEAN  
> Couldn’t have been more than 300 miles.
> 
> SAM  
> Right.
> 
> DEAN  
> What direction were you going?
> 
> EMILY  
> I don’t know. I’m sorry.
> 
> SAM  
> Oh, that’s okay. Em, you’re doing great.

Honestly the funniest thing is 

and it’s amused me for years before I ever knew who was to blame or that this was a Thing

that they go in the vamp house at night presumably late evening/around about midnight, find Emily, cut to Town The Next Morning, do some shopping and stock up on vamptonite, and then cut to night time again while driving

so they could easily have been driving 8-12 hours before they decided to ask Emily for any directions

what direction did they pick

where were they going

why did they not have this conversation MUCH sooner

And then Emily’s like “oh btw monasteries etc” and um they could have you know got that one detail back at the house when they first found her and that was all they’d need to know - Sam even had his phone out then too and they were talking about locating the alpha

really this scene literally only exists to fuck up the timeline/driving continuity in this episode

* * *

Oh my god Sam and Dean just LEAVE Emily with an angry ghost Bobby after he slams the door on them to stop them leaving… That was… not a great decision… just for the potential dangers to Emily

I mean before she turned out to have terrible Stockholm syndrome so immediately handed them in >.> She’s not painted well for that decision here with Bobby judging her for it as if she’s evil… I can’t remember if she gets a second chance here or not but I’m really starting to think Alex was a do-over on this to treat the subject matter more sympathetically. We even have the promise she could go stay with Jody and have been the first of the Wayward Daughters so Alex is very much the answer to her… I still can’t remember what happens to her but I’m beginning to get a bad feeling >.>

* * *

Anyway Bobby possibly was about to respond to that/maybe heroically find a way to warn Sam and Dean they’re walking into a trap but blatantly gets sucked into Revenge over Saving People, the whole core argument of the show back in season 1… Dean has managed to be weaned off the revenge arc at least since Bobby came back and made it weird 

I really can’t remember him being TOO obsessive since? Even the start of this episode, while he was reading Kevin’s notes, Sam was the one googling Dick to see what he was up to, taking the revenge burden off Dean. 

I think Bobby is almost even a manifestation of Dean’s earlier revenge feelings against Dick, metaphorically… Like, between him and Bobby neither could let go but this is how it manifests itself, again exploring the bad headspace through a proxy character and not letting Dean sink into it himself. So everything Dean might have been feeling is now funnelled into Bobby. 

His last words to Dean (OH NO the last time he sees him before SEASON 11) are also very much about letting go and revenge as far as I can recall.

* * *

> DEAN  
> But?
> 
> SAM  
> Are you sure you just want to charge in there, machetes blazing? Last time, it took a dozen hunters to take down the Alpha. And most of them didn’t make it out.
> 
> DEAN  
> Yeah, well, you got a better idea?

Dabbflin referencing their own canon, as per usual. This also puts in context - and I have been saying a few times over season 7, but amusingly this is from literally the same season 8 conversation as “all our friends are dead” from 7x17 ended up in - when Dean is in Benny’s old squad’s nest, and Sam gets weird about Dean killing all the vampires on his own, A: Dean post-Purgatory can Handle Shit (season 6 & 7 I swear are his most terrible in combat seasons while Carver Era Dean fucks shit up :P) and B: it’s canon that fighting a ton of vamps is REALLY FUCKIN HARD and they’re rightfully worried in this moment and this is supposed to represent a second to last episode worthy challenge.

* * *

they are grabbed by vampires the moment they go through the door

A+

* * *

Hey prop-reuse chair! 

Alpha vamp is not coming back any time soon while that’s Crowley’s favourite chair

* * *

Dean at least is aware of the whole Stockholm syndrome thing

* * *

Thinking of prop reuse omg that’s the Michael beats up Lucifer painting from the Beautiful Room out in the hallway hoping that with a stunt vampire in front of it no one notices >.>

* * *

The yellow window behind the alpha does remind me of how in season 6 I was fascinated by Dean’s association with orange and sickly yellow - the vampire episode had a ton of it… This DOES have a very season 6 feel about it because of little details like that.

* * *

creepy child-collecting habits of the vampire not so good >.>

* * *

> DEAN  
> I think any way you slice it, you got Pac Man and True Blood in the same room and that’s bad news. 

Aaah I forgot that Dean literally called them Pac Man

that pleases me

* * *

Oh god I’m weak… Dean with his vamptonite stashed in his boot gives us a shot of the whole boot and it’s the same reddish brown as his jacket

Whyyyy was this jacket trashed I am so SAD

BRING IT BACK

GIVE ME ALL THE DEAN IN LEATHER

* * *

I just noticed alpha vamp has the same fang-y design of his pocket handkerchief as Dick had, but in red

lol

* * *

TBH I’m really fond of Edgar. Would have been fun to see him in Purgatory again. Dick too… Just see how they’re coping :P Although Edgar is much more competent and brutal as his right hand monster, so I figure he’s worse to get caught in a fight with, and probably eliminating him here was the easiest way to reduce the stress of 7x23 :P 

* * *

> ALPHA VAMPIRE  
> [advancing on EDGAR] There are seven  _billion…_  of them.
> 
> EDGAR  
> Only seven.

*clenches fist* I just love when the show gets monsters SO RIGHT. 

Vampires have always existed to prey on humans from the shadows - a dark lurking metaphor for humanity’s darkness… They HAVE to eat us but they don’t overwhelm us. To vampires the sensible option is ALWAYS more humans than vampires, and they just live a long life and take what they need - they don’t ACTUALLY even need to kill humans to drink from them, just enough to get by in hard times. To the alpha it’s inconceivable that the number of humans is somehow finite or insignificant as they’re designed to be outnumbered by humans. 

And then the Leviathans are this consumerism metaphor that want to collect humanity as a resource, to farm us, count us, and take stock of us. Their hunger is all-consuming… Endlessly devouring and dangerously close to self-devouring… I wonder if a Leviathan that gets too hungry would “bib” itself and the eating people is almost a self-defence mechanism against their own hunger. In any case, the world seen through their eyes is a food source they’re starving for and can’t AFFORD to share or prey on from the edges. They have to OWN it and their concept of humanity is utterly skewed by that.

* * *

I am still baffled by how all these pre-creation creations are meant to know each other though

> ALPHA VAMPIRE  
> We come from you.
> 
> EDGAR  
> Barely.
> 
> ALPHA VAMPIRE  
> I am the son of Eve!
> 
> EDGAR  
> A pathetic mutt. Hardly one of us. I knew Eve

I mean yeah Eve and the Leviathans hung out in Purgatory… I guess the fact that monsters are made from corrupted people is why he calls them “mutts” and Leviathan in their pure black goo form have no relation to humanity at all. Eve died in a VERY reminiscent way to Dick so while I don’t think she was a Leviathan I guess she was related in some way.

WHO KNOWS

* * *

Anyway Edgar gets decapitated by Winchester teamwork 

farewell!

* * *

Oh, bleh, they assume Emily “chose” to stay with the alpha and they negotiate the random little boy’s release instead… I wish it had stayed simple and he never existed so they could stand their ground and take Emily despite the “betrayal”. Boooo.

Yeah, Alex was a penance episode :P Thanks Bobo.

* * *

Oh no Dean don’t melt down about Bobby now >.>

*despaaaaaaaaaaair*

I guess he didn’t have enough despair left to have him emotionally ready for the season finale (read: properly devastated and hopeless as he’s been all season) because things actually were turning up their way for a little while with the tablet and Kevin falling into their laps AND Cas coming back from the dead which is a step up from written off the show whatever happened to him after that…

Aaand cliffhanger.

Where Dean has to say their only hope is Crowley. Lol. This is how he gets them every time. :P

That or they’re HIS only hope

honestly 11x18 was wildly unclear about who was helping who out and I’m still harping on that conversation flipping around in the middle for no discernible reason >.>

I think after this episode and 7x23 they at least learn that they both mutually enjoy existing on the earth as a common hobby >.>

* * *

Anyway I think Dick got that devil’s trap installed literally just for this one conversation with Crowley, which is hilarious. Hey if you have money you can get your office remodelled overnight.

(well… this episode took like 3 or 4 days, all Dabb car weirdness added up)

* * *

Ooh gosh end of the season up next and it’s only 8pm. Well, time to get a cup of tea and put that on. :P 


	23. 7x23

Or: Dean and Cas get Dick

…

I AM ONLY HUMAN 

The show totally 100% started it & this is my last chance for a Dick joke :P

You know how I was complaining about 6x22′s awful montage? DAMN even then when I was saying how season 7′s was the best I forgot how GOOD it is. There were like maybe 4 points where they used dialogue to explain the plot details and the rest was all conveyed visually in concise clips of things like Cas dying/coming back (yay stuff that’s in all the Destiel fan videos), Bobby dying/clearly now as a ghost possessing the maid etc, and there were plenty of moments where they didn’t need to cram in all the plot details so they could show us multiple verses of the song over just random badass monster killing, and generally the only thing I’d say is that in favour of making everyone look cool, there was no clip of Sam getting the snot beaten out of him by clowns.

I am grinning just from enjoying this recap to the season which is ridiculous considering how much major character death was in it

Anyway yeah season 7 starts terribly and then manages to pull a full redemption arc on itself and sets itself up for season 8 which is much-loved in comparison… 

Most importantly, this season contains the bookends, which I talked about either in 6x22 or 7x01, that the season begins and ends ABOUT Cas, and thus makes him an intrinsic part of the season… And with Cas and Dean’s relationship being one of the main plot tensions this episode, after the horrific start, this season ends on a Destiel explosion.

…

Wrong word maybe since they end up literally exploded as far as Sam knows by the end of this

lol

Crowley knows that there is a prophet, which means he’s way more aware of the main plot than he was told by Sam and Dean as they told him never you mind on how they got the tablet translated

I can’t believe I have literally never realised in a season I must have rewatched maybe 5 times since season 8 just by my basic math of how many rewatches I’ve definitely done, that Crowley knew about Kevin all along, despite not being told about him.

I have always thought him pulling the demon tablet out of nowhere was totally random and him kidnapping Kevin at the end was just a ploy to increase tension/create cliffhangers and the tablet he owned was thought up later to explain it, but nope, Crowley grabs him, and Meg, with full intent to use Kevin to translate one tablet and while he has him, use Meg to grab another. Fancy that, plot cohesion. Season 8 seems a lot cleverer to me suddenly.

… I mean everyone likes season 8 anyway but I feel like I should confess that somehow I have the least amount of actual feelings about season 8 as a cohesive entity? I honestly don’t know it as well as any other season, so we’re actually going to go on a Voyage of Discovery regarding it… my rewatch will be maybe not first watchy but I guess if something like this is catching me out, I’m going to be realising a lot about it I never thought before (I have definitely seen it at least 4 times? 3 of them in one summer… lol - I’ve only seen season 9 those 3 times (and only once when all 23 episodes had aired) but fandom talked it over so much in a way season 8 had been already done and dusted by the time I got here I feel I understand everything after it much better…)

Anyway. Businessman demon to businessman leviathan. It’s hilarious. We also know - and Crowley may not be totally privy to this - that Dick dealing with the alpha vamp lied to him because the leviathans want ALL 7 billion humans so there’s a clear understanding to the viewer that Crowley will be fucked if he actually honours the deal as he prefers to do, so he HAS to backstab Dick and betray his own code of honour - faffing around buying time for the Winchesters with the huge contract is a bonus and credit to his character. 

As with season 5 Crowley is not the antagonist here at all, but a reluctant ally, all those future plans for evil aside. I prefer him vastly when he’s acting like this (11x18 made me like him again for the first time in a long time specifically because of this as I’m 100% convinced this is Crowley’s real place in the narrative and using him as a “big bad” is kind of totally pointless and contrary to his character >.>) and I think Crowley also thrives when he’s under pressure like this - that is I’ve always thought it but season 10 proved he literally is bored to tears when he’s in charge and unchallenged. 

ALSO Crowley is tied to the good guys because

CROWLEY  
I can’t deny I long to see those two digested once and for all. You have a deal. I suppose you want it in writing?

DICK ROMAN  
I don’t kiss on the mouth.

CROWLEY  
Your loss

(no not the flirting although I am laughing about Leviathans kissing with those giant mouths in a really dark humour way)

his method of buying time is to do with writing - as with the rest of Dick’s defeat, it comes via words. As I said several times the theme of Gamble era on this front is “write your own story” (Carver era I suppose that’s still the ideal only there’s an actual tussle about who gets to write it AND the focus is also on “the story became the story” and the story being wrong, which take the theme in very different directions) so Crowley is actually participating in a theme that connects TFW, Kevin, the Word of God and so on putting him squarely in their team, thematically.

I’m almost fond of the title card after so long with it… *splat* Leviathan all over your screen…

Also having to bid farewell to Sam’s season 7 hair and sideburns. 

*pours out a drink*

DEAN  
I still say this is a bad idea.

SAM  
Dean, it was your idea, and it was the best one either of us had.

DEAN  
I said it as a joke.

SAM  
It was a bad joke – good idea.

Gamble like “If I’m leaving I’m leaving with one last smart!Dean hurrah”

DEAN  
Dude, on my car, he showed up naked… covered in bees. 

[Sam looks directly into the camera like he’s on the Office]

image  
he suffers

MAN’S VOICE ON RADIO  
That’s right. He’s holed up at Sucrocorp headquarters right now.

DEAN  
Holed up at Sucrocorp, huh?

Dick on TV in the next shot where Bobby finds this out too, holding up a sign that says “this definitely is not a trap”

…

Dick ALSO looks directly at the audience while setting his trap and it’s even creepier because the focus is on Bobby’s reflection but Dick’s eyes slide over and look directly out of the screen as he does his creepy shark smile

wtf is with everyone today I feel WATCHED.

Anyone speak Latin?

image  
I see stuff in there about blood so it must be about when they give Sam and Dean the blood or something, and the “secunda pars” goes with their dialogue about first party/second party referring to themselves

Honestly they have one scene together but they flirt and prove they’re a perfect match… why ISN’T Dickley a ship???

I have a lot of feelings about Dean being the one to pick the nun to get the bone from just because “righteous” and him being the one to use the weapon and him being all tied into this with just that little extra investment than Sam…

I have more feelings about how it’s an unspecified bone in the spell and imagining him borrowing a finger bone for back up in an emergency. Or mauling Dick with a blood-soaked hipbone or kneecap or something else wildly unsuited to being a weapon

^ how to tell when you have watched an episode too many times

DEAN  
Son of a bitch. He’s standing us up.

DEAN  
If Crowley wants to screw you, he’ll screw you.

hello darkness my old friend

the table still has his writing he burned into it last episode… I wonder if that’s still there in season 8

MEG  
You deal with him. I can’t anymore

MEG  
Go ask him. He was your boyfriend first.

*quiet chuckling about stuff I already discussed at length about how this “love triangle” was set up* Mostly just how equal Dean and Meg were presented throughout despite Dean having the larger, more obvious emotional claim, they were pitted against each other for “ownership” of Cas… which is not what Dean even wanted but Meg kept pushing it as a theme to make it about who “got” him such as when she threatened to leave and take him with her. So we see Cas has popped up once nakedly to Dean for who knows what reason and at least once tried to drag Meg back into the fight… But Meg, who previously had been vying to keep Cas as a source of protection/power in her fight had already been showing second thoughts about that and is now literally here to hand him over to Dean, accepting defeat.

I have warmed up to this line a lot more at least for the subtext and emotional consistency of the Dean vs Meg stuff, even if I don’t like the surface level tone of it >.>

It’s also interesting to me with the hindsight that Crowley had the whole “he’s your boyfriend” thing about Dean with Cas in season 10 (in the 10x14 deleted scene but it at least counts as subtext >.>), in another episode where the object of affection the two rivals were fighting over picked his own side (Cas)… so in both cases DeanCas win out over the rival and it marks the end of serious competition between the aggressor/interloper in the love triangle (Meg, Crowley). 

Oh nooo Dean needing to take a long breath to gather himself to deal with Cas 

the fact they keep on showing us how unprepared Dean is to talk to him

THE FACT THIS EPISODE IS ALL ABOUT TALKING TO HIM

Has anyone ever written about the song playing behind him? I don’t know the song at all *grabs the lines out of the transcript*

“Vincent” by Don Maclean plays.

♪ Look out on a summer’s day ♪

♪ with eyes that know the darkness in my soul ♪

♪ Shadows on the hills ♪

♪ Sketch the trees… ♪

♪ …and the daffodils ♪

♪ Catch the breeze and the winter chills ♪

♪ in colors on the snowy linen land ♪

♪ Now I understand ♪

♪ Perhaps they’ll listen now ♪

I guess considering the whole Cas side of this episode is about them understanding each other and talking… 

Cas is way less layered in this episode than he is in 7x21, and it’s sort of disappointing but I suppose every episode can’t be an Edlund episode :P His concern about the monkeys is a lot harder to find an instant metaphor for, although immediately after Cas talks about all the angels from his garrison being dead or hiding he says

DEAN  
Um, I’m sorry. If the angels are dead, where’s Kevin?

CASTIEL  
I could steal them from their cages, the monkeys. But where would I put them all?

DEAN  
Hey! [He claps his hands.] Focus. Is Kevin alive?

and while it does seem to be more about a refusal to engage the subject matter/Cas not wanting to talk about hard subjects any more than he wants to (and after he put a lot of effort into summarising awful news for them already) I suppose you could compare this to his problems wrangling the angels and his issues with leadership

Cas says he doesn’t want to fight, and 

CASTIEL  
They took him. He’s alive. I felt such responsibility, but it’s in your hands now.

DEAN  
Wait. Hold on a freakin’ minute.

CASTIEL  
I feel much better.

again much more surface level (pfft Gamble said he had no subtext) but it does give us the confirmation about how Cas is approaching all his problems and how much he’s avoiding responsibility

I actually went and looked up Gamble’s episodes at this point and she wrote shockingly few Cas episodes considering he’s 4 seasons old by this point - most of them are ones where he pops up in the first ten minutes or last ten minutes or is unconscious or elsewhere for most of the episode. I am almost laughing about how she accidentally created a season with the same format … I’m really getting the feeling she never liked writing him

CROWLEY  
[to CASTIEL] Now, what do you have to say for yourself?

CASTIEL  
Well, I’m still, uh, honing my communication strategy.

that’s true :P

Anyway I guess the Cas and Crowley reunion is deliberately unsatisfying… Cas can’t snark at him and Crowley ends up feeling disappointed about the lack of mutually interesting antagonism

plot stuff is exchanged, Cas says he doesn’t fight any more 100 times and Crowley sulks off

There’s considerably little action in this episode considering, you know… everything. 15 minutes in they’re ready to kill Dick so it just needs to be prolonged until the last act now, and we go to the Bobby side of things. I’ve always found this sort of unsatisfactory: it doesn’t strike the right balance of convincing rage spiral despite the build up to it (a la Mark of Cain Dean - which went on too long in season 10 but was rather better as an end of season descent in season 9 in a similar timeframe as Bobby as a ghost), once Bobby’s gone mostly vengeful he’s very much a side plot and distraction so there’s not much weight on what’s going on with him unfortunately (we really don’t get enough POV or exploration of this state) and the maid’s actress is one of the rare side actors on the show who really doesn’t seem to be putting much effort in… These scenes feel pretty flat to me, and that’s kind of sad, especially as these are some of Bobby’s last real scenes on the show as a character with a season long arc rather than token nostalgia appearances.

It has always bothered me that Sam doesn’t pour their magic blood cocktail on the pointy end of the bone, but I guess Dean does ram it all the way through Dick’s neck in the long run

Like I can totally understand why Dean is looking around like “did it work??”

There’s an awful lot of uncertainty in this episode: they can’t know that Crowley hasn’t backstabbed them and given them the wrong blood, and they can’t know that even if it was the right blood the weapon works. There’s a whole lot of leap of faith stuff going on here, as well as mistrust and uncertainty since we also have the whole dozen of Dicks thing when they go to take him on… I suppose also an emphasis on authenticity?

Which makes sense as the next thing that happens is Cas’s Perfect Sandwich moment

he even does the washing up later…

*looks at Dean and points at Cas* MARRY HIM

I feel like I’ve talked about this moment before, specifically Dean just cheerfully taking the sandwich and Sam taking ages to get on board with the whole Sandwich of Solidarity thing. 

I should go look at my tag for this episode…

Oh wow that was much worse than I was expecting

http://elizabethrobertajones.tumblr.com/post/113154817813/looking-at-one-of-the-only-gifsets-from-s7-that

*clutches heart*

image  
noooo :P

I suppose the rebranding may have been because RRE bought them all up, but the company flops between season 7 & 8 and so it must have got sold on. Dick facilitated Biggerson’s and the Gas n Sip chains to bloom into omnipresent businesses and then those two happened to survive the crash that followed.

Interesting again that Cas continues to be tied to these chains that were under Dick’s thumb, then, if it’s not just Biggerson’s but Gas n Sip too…

DICK ROMAN  
Last time we were in one room, it was inside that angel. 

Fuck off :P

image  
ahahaha yep “FUTURE DEVELOPMENT CANADA AND MEXICO”

Crowley’s got 0 job security if he didn’t betray Dick

Wait how did Kevin know about the creamer being evil if he ran off and got caught before Dick demonstrated killing the girl??

Anyway Sam takes it on himself to go deal with Bobby and leaves Dean behind? I know it’s a little thing but Sam deals with that and gets invested in fetching Kevin back while Dean deals with Dick with Cas - Sam saving random people (the maid in this case) and Dean being told to stay behind in the car to keep an eye on Dick… 

On the other hand Dean was meant to have a revenge arc against Dick that has just peetered out entirely since he has to be told to do that and has displayed no signs of obsessiveness over the issue since Bobby came back - Bobby has pretty much entirely taken that arc from Dean although there’s no concrete reason why Dean’s desire for revenge would be muted considering Bobby is still dead and somehow managing to get worse from there

Also: mini Swan Song parallel for Bobby and Sam? 

This being the last time we’re in this territory of “i know you’re in there” being Swan Song related because we’re facing down the hell of Carver Era turning it DeanCas and having it said one billion times and only working between Dean and Cas now :P 

(And Robbie is STILL at it in 11x16, 3 years later, just in case anyone forgot >.>)

Ahh yeah and here’s another part of this episode I’ve already talked about: Cas panic-making sandwiches (he gives them new ones while washing up the old plates) and is desperately hoping no one asks him why he is useful to the fight or expects anything of him >.>

http://elizabethrobertajones.tumblr.com/post/129217550198/im-still-so-pissed-at-cas-for-bobbys-death-its

(that link title is misleading that was an anon saying that, not me :P)

Gosh this is a painful scene though… I hate that stuff like this apparently stands out in people’s memories and they don’t remember the gentler moments when Dean and Cas repair their relationship in this same episode? 

Anyway here it all bubbles over and breaks as Dean can no longer stand Cas changing the subject and avoiding conflict when he’s getting increasingly scared because he knows that Dean needs him for this fight and he knows how he would be useful except he feels like he can’t… And Dean has been losing patience all the time because he’s upset about Cas being broken and seeing Cas refusing to fight and face up to what he’s done…

I think this is one of the most telling lines about Cas:

CASTIEL  
I can’t help. You understand? I can’t. I destroyed… everything, and I will destroy everything again. Can we please just leave it at that? 

It’s going to inform a lot of his arc/choices from here on out even when he’s better… He *can’t* leave Purgatory and then he feels like he *can’t* return to Heaven… He carries on swinging between extremes of running away and hiding (for example although it was never made clear but after the angel fall Dean tells him to head to the Bunker but 9x03 showing his progress across the map suggests more like he was just running away again) or leaping into action and having more poor consequences (like CAUSING the angel fall spell)… He had a more mellow season 10 because there wasn’t a whole lot for him to do in the main plot aside from support it and get participation trophies, but of course season 11 we’re right back at Cas throwing himself into a thing after a much more in-depth look at how he was suffering.

The way Dean flinches though after Cas walks up to him and then just says “we should play Twister”… I still think Dean was hoping Cas would lash out at him like in the old days - Dean’s self-punishing streak is a thing too, even if in contrast to Cas right now it seems much less pronounced - and in a way like with Crowley being disappointed that Cas is in no shape to fight it’s just not satisfying to yell at Cas and not get laid into in return? I think Dean immediately feels bad for saying what he did - as I don’t think they talk again properly until make up time? - and Cas’s reaction as much as anything sets Dean thinking and makes him take a gentler path… Not just because they ~need~ Cas in the sense of needing a tool to get the job done, but also for the emotional resolution they’ve been lacking ever since the betrayal. Dean is forced to really look at Cas and examine what’s going on with him and between them… I think not getting any backlash for his shouting also makes him feel guilty about it…

Basically yeah we get an interlude with Bobby and then Dean approaches Cas for help more gently, and so this has to be the moment Dean gets course corrected on this

BOBBY  
I’m still jonesing to go back… grab some poor bastard, kamikaze ‘em going after Dick. It’s bad. 

Further to the Mark of Cain parallels to being a vengeful ghost, Bobby clutches at his arm and uses drug-related language to describe the feeling of being vengeful

Also pulls in the whole collateral damage thing which again is a primary concern of the bro storyline in Carver era

more Mark of Cain-ish lines:

BOBBY  
Right. That’s just what ghosts turn into. I really bet the farm I could outsmart that.

BOBBY  
What? Going vengeful? It’s an itch you can’t scratch out.

and for general Carver era themes:

SAM  
It wasn’t your fault, Bobby – not really.

BOBBY  
And when it’s your time… go.

Sam’s approach to demon!Dean is the same re: blame, hence trying to save him at all even after all that hassle demon!Dean puts him through… And of course the whole problem with the Winchesters not going when they’re supposed to. I think Bobby takes the same stance in 9x01 in Sam’s coma with Dean of course gunning for him to stay alive, and it makes sense that this is what Bobby would represent to Sam given his parting words to them

This scene would actually make me cry as it’s some of Bobby’s last ever advice he gives them, and especially when it comes to Dean he literally to date has not exchanged words with Bobby since this, and only made eye contact with past!Bobby in 11x16 for 3 seconds… 

but

BOBBY  
Go get Dick. But don’t do it 'cause you think it’ll scratch the itch.

Bobby’s last words are too funny as one of the last and greatest Dick jokes…

Anyway he says don’t revenge because personal, kill monsters because that’s what they do so his last serious advice unfortunately is really depressing because THAT isn’t heeded nearly enough >.> For example, Crowley talks Dean onto the exact same arc I’ve been paralleling to Bobby’s arc for - in the grand scheme of things - petty vengeance against Abaddon 

*sadly reaches out for Cas watching the whole thing and being sad too* 

Same.

Aaand he has one more go at the boardgames but Dean interrupts him, asks nicely, and off they go :’)

Dean shows acceptance of Cas’s choice and of course as soon as he does that, Cas, who has been on his own quiet emotional thinking process about all this, realises that he values Sam and Dean *not* dying heroically over his own fear of screwing up or causing more damage… I guess watching Bobby’s spirit be set free also reminded Cas of the sacrifice that gets made, and the fact Bobby was killed going up against the Leviathan while Sam and Dean plan to do exactly that all over again…

Cas gets weird and deep in the way I love best:

CASTIEL  
And at best, I die trying to fix my own stupid mistake. Or… I don’t die – I’m brought back again. I see now. It’s a punishment resurrection. It’s worse every time.

DEAN  
I’m sorry. Uh, we’re talking about God crap, right?

CASTIEL  
I’m not good luck, Dean.

I would contest that, that God is bringing Cas back not to punish him but because there is still stuff for him to do, or because he’s the only angel that GETS it, and is too precious to waste… But anyway, Cas understanding it that way also plays into a lot of his ongoing issues with God and his own life and season 11 is making us a scary number of promises that both those things might get seriously explored, so I’m kind of just highlighting this exchange out of curiosity about it actually getting addressed…

I love that moment where Cas realises that Dean loves him :P 

I mean it’s played as the moment where Cas realises that Dean’s forgiven him finally, but… 

I mean

after ALL THIS FUCKIN’ DRAMA between the two of them, Dean is like “I’d rather have you” and okay he’s just playing it off as “lol sure everything sucks but you’re useful” but at the same time it’s also “lol sure everything sucks but I’m happy to have you by my side” and I think Cas can read Dean loud and clear and he knows that Dean is fond of him in whatever way at this point - I think he understands Dean’s anger because it’s not like either of them apologise, they just start saying stuff that clicks with the other again… Their version of forgiveness. :P

…

To make this really awful, of course this conversation is pretty much directly the influence on Cas’s behaviour towards Dean in Purgatory, running away from him and trying to ditch him for Dean’s own good and hoping he escapes and leaves Purgatory quickly and without Cas dragging him down, because Cas KNOWS Dean would do EXACTLY WHAT HE DID, but he hopes that breaking Dean’s heart and disappearing will harden Dean up and make him leave Cas behind, only he doesn’t… He STILL would rather have Cas with him than anything else 

I don’t know how many chances Cas really has to realise Dean romantically loves him but he definitely gets that Dean loves him here in a way he might not have realised he was cared about before… If only because Cas’s behaviour after this point is working around this very fact?

… I think Cas might take a little longer to figure out just how attracted to him Dean is though, but tbh I can’t help seeing 8x07 as teasing Dean just a little with that “look at me i cleaned up good” hand gesture which goes in the annals of rare Destiel flirting and rarer Destiel flirting initiated by Cas. :P Despite all the mourning this season, I think season 8 is much more about Dean coming to terms with his feelings for Cas and so I’ll write him down as “confused but happy” right now with no idea he is in love with Cas or that Cas is in love with him so Cas at least in terms of trying to understand them… might be a tiny weeny step ahead? For like 1 episode before we’re hanging out with post-Purgatory Dean :P

oh man season 8 Dean oh nooo

Look, car! Nyooooooom

Freed from the exact same cloth Dean put over it in the season 6 car retirement phase.

TBH that was part of the sheet metaphors about Dean’s temporary spiritual death/crossing over into life journey at the start of season 6, so it’s nice that there’s some book ends to Gamble era with that… Dean’s been in a sort of sad limbo all season anyway, and now Dean and Cas are totally about to have an honorary death so far as the public record on Earth is concerned for the next year. :P

Do we even talk enough about how Dean and Cas make up and that’s what brings the car aka Dean’s soul back into working order? :P

Sam grabs Kevin and I’m still bothered by how many computers and stuff were in that room. Could Kevin not have sent them a message or something?

I’m never even over the continuity weirdness of the car clearly having a stunt driver and passenger of Sam and Dean’s general description but then Meg gets out and Sam and Dean and Cas are infiltrating the building sneakily and just letting her use the car as a distraction.

Anyway I guess they knew from the security feeds they’d hacked where Kevin was being kept so Sam could make a beeline for him so that’s ONE weird thing with an answer

(oh my god Dean and Sam don’t have anything to do with each other from Bobby’s departure onwards… I know it sort of leaves Sam more adrift to have not even had dramatic farewells or last wishes or anything, but Cas n Dean were the ones talking about potentially dying on this mission together, and no one thought to even fist bump Sam before they set off? I know they would have off-screen but there’s nothing we’re shown so we have to assume nothing significant was said…)

*that one shot of Cas n Dean nose to nose*

I like the bit right before, when Dean peers round the corner at a fake Dick and then nudges Cas to go look and with no sense of personal space and trying to keep a low profile and hug the wall I’m pretty sure Cas practically CLIMBED over Dean despite having plenty of space not to, but it happened off-camera 

Aaaand here the are shoulder to shoulder confronting Dick :’)

There’s enough yellow stuff in the lab to stand out enough with this theme of yellow as a warning or symbolising death.

Considering what’s about to happen to them

*takes one last moment to appreciate Dean’s jacket in good lighting with the colour turned up properly*

DICK ROMAN  
Little abrupt… but okay. 

Yeah, sorry, there’s only 5 minutes left

DICK ROMAN  
Castiel. Good to see you again. Thanks for the ride into paradise. 

Heh, and he’ll be their ride back >.>

I like his motivational speaker approach to individually telling Dean and Cas both something affirming and positive… Maybe copying Dick taught the monster some serious tricks about how to talk to people. I love his characterisation to the very end. He’s just so awful. :P

DEAN  
See, here’s the thing when dealing with Crowley – he will always find a way to bone you. 

*goes to scream into a cushion*

But yeah the whole “are you sure it will work/I’m even Dick”thing is the answer to the previous theme of uncertainty because Dean expresses his faith in Cas - and weirdly Crowley just on the assumption that Dean is his least worst problem - and it’s all been about having that trust and learning teamwork and relying on Cas as well and… this episode has such a cutesy moral

*Dean and Cas tag-team kill Dick* 

Which was the same general move as Sam and Dean killing Ruby in season 4 but waaaay less erotic because when male characters die, even a dude called Dick being impaled by a bone - that just doesn’t happen.

Pfft

*title-card splat*

Crowley shows up like “lol I win” because just like Meg warned them, Crowley is always the problem and of course he orchestrated the entire thing in his favour…

SAM  
Which is exactly what you wanted.

CROWLEY  
So did you. Without a master plan, the Levis are just another monster. Hard to stomp, sure, but you love a challenge. Your job is to keep them from organizing.

On the other hand I’m pretty sure there was no communication about what to do with Sam because he has nil foreshadowing for what he does instead… Perhaps thinking they’d start season 8 with a season 6 pattern, Sera tries to set up the potential for Sam working alone, nominally in Crowley’s favour, fighting monsters and being a BAMF - and probably working to save Kevin - (perhaps like, Mystery Spot scary!Sam character type because dead Dean) while Dean and Cas are otherwise occupied

Only Carver doesn’t play ball with this set up and focuses on the emotional damage Sam would have taken from that (and I know I just mentioned Mystery Spot, which Carver wrote, but I guess he didn’t want to re-tread that sort of emotional ground either), plus Bobby had a point about not going on the revenge thing just this episode…

All in all that line from Crowley is definitely speaking of character stuff for Sam that was skipped by the writers, and now shows Crowley forming the wrong idea about what Sam will do based on past form…

… amusingly, the story is wrong, in a loopy metatextual way that only happens because they later chose to write it that way, introducing us to this Carver era theme. :P

Also hey Crowley is talking about knowing how God weapons work, which, you know, considering we now know he has literally had God weapons stashed in his private storage for ages, lends some credibility to his expertise on the subject later. 

Meanwhile: Purgatory

not the romantic holiday destination it’s advertised as

It’s great hearing Cas talk like this though - it’s clear immediately that he’s far more coherent and aware and back to his old self in some ways… 

Although it’s always bothered me that Dick didn’t appear in the same place as them. I’ve always figured Cas meant “we need to get out of here” as “this immediate area” because Dick would be at the very least nearby so they need to leg it.

Also I figure especially now I looked up Gamble’s episodes, that she flung Cas away from Dean just on principle as a last point of drama, maybe to imply there was still something off about him (his conflict all episode was avoiding fights to REALLY over-simplify it but he said it enough times) or just because she felt it would be more dramatic for Cas to disappear off with her attention on the parallel of Sam and Dean both in different realms lost and alone and Cas’s characterisation is not her problem any more after this but the last shots of Sam and Dean were way more her focus and perhaps her assumption being this is where the drama would lie - in Purgatory getting resolved between Sam and Dean’s efforts or something…

The fact that this disappearing away is then salvaged into one of the most romantic things Cas has ever said to Dean once they meet again is a credit to the writing…

(I really am a Gamble fangirl a lot of the time especially over her old episodes before she was showrunner (the cuuurse) but wow is the Cas thing in her era a problem and I’m so excited to move onto a season where he’s, like, not dead for more than half of it. :P)

Anyway fuck those gorilla wolf things for looking really cool in the wide shot but being impossible for them to film in the flesh, so no cool monsters for Dean to fight next season, just more humans with make up or fake fangs. :P 

I am 100% convinced off-screen he killed at least one more dragon, and not a weird shitty human with occasional wings, but like, a giant proper dragon.

Yay for the last word for the season being “Cas?!”


End file.
